Aarhus Universitets segl

English

Du er her: AU » Om AU » Organisation » Targeting predictors in random forest regression

Om AU

Targeting predictors in random forest regression

Publikation: Working paper/Preprint › Working paper › Forskning

Dokumenter

  • rp20_03

    Forlagets udgivne version, 671 KB, PDF-dokument

Random forest regression (RF) is an extremely popular tool for the analysis of high-dimensional data. Nonetheless, its benefits may be lessened in sparse settings, due to weak predictors, and a pre-estimation dimension reduction (targeting) step is required. We show that proper targeting controls the probability of placing splits along strong predictors, thus providing an important complement to RF’s feature sampling. This is supported by simulations using representative finite samples. Moreover, we quantify the immediate gain from targeting in terms of increased strength of individual trees. Macroeconomic and financial applications show that the bias-variance tradeoff implied by targeting, due to increased correlation among trees in the forest, is balanced at a medium degree of targeting, selecting the best 10–30% of commonly applied predictors. Improvements in predictive accuracy of targeted RF relative to ordinary RF are considerable, up to 12–13%, occurring both in recessions and expansions, particularly at long horizons.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
UdgivelsesstedAarhus
UdgiverInstitut for Økonomi, Aarhus Universitet
Antal sider50
StatusUdgivet - maj 2020
SerietitelCREATES Research Paper
Nummer2020-03

    Forskningsområder

  • Random forests, LASSO, High-dimensional forecasting, Weak predictors, Targeted predictors

Se relationer på Aarhus Universitet Citationsformater

Download-statistik

Ingen data tilgængelig

ID: 187264161