Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Solution to the Segmented Regression Problem

Here's my solution to the "segmented regression" problem that I posed yesterday. Thanks for the comments and suggestions!

You'll recall that what we wanted to do was to end up with a fitted least squares "line" looking like this:

In particular, the "kink" in the line is at a pre-determined point - in this example when x = 30.

Here's how we can achieve this:

The basic regression model is

              yi = α + β xi + εi    ;     i = , 2, ...., n .                                                              (1)

Suppose that we want the line segments to join when x = x*. Then, define a dummy variable, Di, such that:

             Di = 0      ;    if xi ≤ x*
             Di = 1      ;    if xi > x*

The two line segments in the graph above have different intercepts and different slopes, so would probably think of modifying model (1) to become:

             yi = α + β xi + γ Di + δ (xiDi) + εi    ;     i = , 2, ...., n .                                    (2)

That's a good start, but we still have force the join-point to be at x*.

This requirement amounts to the following restriction on the parameters of the model:

             γ + δ x* = 0,

where x* is just a known number (30 in my example above).

Using this restriction to eliminate γ from equation (2), we get:

             yi = α + β xi + δ D(xi - x*) + εi    ;     i = 1, 2,..., n .                                     (3)

Here is the EViews output for my estimated regression model:


The EViews workfile is on the code page for this blog, and the data I used are available on the data page.

We can then generate within-sample forecasts, separately, for observations 1 to 30, and observations 30 to 100. If these series are called YFORC1 and YFORC2, this is (part of) what we get:


Notice that YORC1 = YFORC2 at observation 30, as required.

If we then gather X, Y, YFORC1 and YFORC2 into a group, and produce a scatter-plot, here's the result we wanted:
So, it all comes down to the use of a dummy variable and a restriction of the regression coefficients. One without the other won't work.

Ryan commented on the post in question, and suggested that (in my notation) we estimate the model:

                     yi = α (xi - 30) + β Di (x-30) + εi .

This produces the following results:




Ryan gets the join-point alright, but the fit over the first sub-sample doesn't look very convincing. Sorry, buddy!



© 2013, David E. Giles

10 comments:

  1. thanks dave. very interesting. you allow for a changing slope at a known point using the introduction of a dummy variable and a second coefficient. ( dimitry: my mistake. it seems like you were close ) neat stuff. and it also seems like an approach that could be extended to multiple change points ( as long as you know what they are beforehand ) also.




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    1. Mark - yes, this definitely extends to any number of (known) change-points.

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  2. This paper may be of some interest.
    http://people.bu.edu/perron/papers/EJ-06.pdf

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    1. See page 425-426

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    2. The segmented regression idea has been around in the stats. literature since the 60's or 70's

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    3. Dave, could you point out the first time that this particular trend segmented regression appeared in the literature, if you happen to know? I am very curious to know. Thanks!

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    4. Not exactly sure, but I have put some early references in a new post (26 October 2013, here:
      http://davegiles.blogspot.ca/2013/10/segmented-regression-some-relatively.html

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  3. I maintain that unless you are looking for a regression that doesn't give you garbage results, my method is the clear winner buddy.

    Thanks for looking at my attempt. I checked the EViews code and played around, very educational. A nice way of exploring the algebra of forcing the regression surface through a fixed a point, with some dummy variables intuition in there. I think this would be a great problem in most econometrics texts. Have your students already been subjected to this? I wonder about bias, and am curious if you have a DGP in mind for this problem.

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    1. Hah ! :-) :-)
      There's a restriction being imposed on the parameters, so if this is false, then teh estimator will be biased (& inconsistent). Students - ECON 545, supp. exercises 2!

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  4. Thanks for the awesome blog, Dave!
    If x* is unknown, one can find its least squares estimate by minimizing SSR over a set of candidate thresholds. I believe, in the current example such an estimate, i.e. argmin-SSR(x*), happens to be equal to 24. I hope I got this right.

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