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Unbiased Shrinkage Estimation

Jann Spiess

arXiv 21 Aug 2017 · Mathematics — Statistics Theory

arXiv:1708.06436 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

Shrinkage estimation usually reduces variance at the cost of bias. But when we care only about some parameters of a model, I show that we can reduce variance without incurring bias if we have additional information about the distribution of covariates. In a linear regression model with homoscedastic Normal noise, I consider shrinkage estimation of the nuisance parameters associated with control variables. For at least three control variables and exogenous treatment, I establish that the standard least-squares estimator is dominated with respect to squared-error loss in the treatment effect even among unbiased estimators and even when the target parameter is low-dimensional. I construct the dominating estimator by a variant of James-Stein shrinkage in a high-dimensional Normal-means problem. It can be interpreted as an invariant generalized Bayes estimator with an uninformative (improper) Jeffreys prior in the target parameter.

Citation extraction

7
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11
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Most heavily cited references

The works this paper leans on most, across its whole bibliography — not restricted to papers in our corpus. Ranked by composite intensity, which combines how often a work is mentioned, how many sections mention it, and how much of that falls in the main text rather than the appendix.

ReferenceIntensityMentionsSectionsMain text
1Baranchik, A. J (1973) Inadmissibility of Maximum Likelihood Estimators in Some Multiple Regression Problems with Three or More Independent Variables0.58531100%
2James, W. and Stein, C (1961) Estimation with quadratic loss0.58531100%
3Chamberlain, G. and Moreira, M. J (2009) Decision Theory Applied to a Linear Panel Data Model0.40511100%
4Hansen, B. E (2007) Least Squares Model Averaging0.40511100%
5Hansen, B. E (2016) Efficient shrinkage in parametric models0.40511100%
6Spiess, J (2017) Bias Reduction in Instrumental Variable Estimation through First-Stage Shrinkage self0.40511100%
7Sclove, S. L (1968) Improved estimators for coefficients in linear regression0.40511100%

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arXiv econ.EM papers that cite this one, ranked by how heavily they lean on it.

Citing paperIntensityMentionsSections
1Bias Reduction in Instrumental Variable Estimation through First-Stage Shrinkage0.40511