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SAUSS: Stochastic Approximation with Unbiased Simulated Scores for Limited Dependent Variable Models

Sokbae Lee, Yuan Liao, Myung Hwan Seo, Youngki Shin

arXiv 26 Aug 2026 · Statistics — Methodology

arXiv:2608.25304 · PDF · Extracted main text

Abstract

Multinomial choice models allow flexible substitution patterns but become computationally demanding with many alternatives or observations. With a fixed per-observation simulation budget, simulated maximum likelihood introduces simulation bias, while each optimization step requires a full-sample likelihood evaluation. We propose Stochastic Approximation with Unbiased Simulated Scores (SAUSS), an averaged stochastic approximation based on conditionally unbiased mini-batch score estimates. Each iteration uses a fixed mini-batch regardless of sample size. For multinomial probit, accept-reject sampling provides exact conditional draws and unbiased score estimates for any fixed number of accepted draws. Under local conditions, asymptotic theory for the averaged estimator and the partial-sum process of the SAUSS iterates incorporates mini-batch and simulation variability and supports random-scaling and plug-in inference. In simulations and an application, SAUSS gives comparable results in less than 1% of the computation time of simulated maximum likelihood. SAUSS extends to limited dependent variable models with conditional-expectation score representations and exact conditional sampling.

Citation extraction

29
references
47
in-text mentions
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distinct cited
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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
1Hajivassiliou, V. A. and D. L. McFadden (1998) The method of simulated scores for the estimation of LDV models1.00053100%
2Train, K. E (2009) Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation\/ (2nd ed.)0.92843100%
3Polyak, B. T. and A. B. Juditsky (1992) Acceleration of stochastic approximation by averaging0.8434375%
4Börsch-Supan, A. and V. A. Hajivassiliou (1993) Smooth unbiased multivariate probability simulators for maximum likelihood estimation of limited dependent variable models0.73732100%
5Hajivassiliou, V., D. McFadden, and P. Ruud (1996) Simulation of multivariate normal rectangle probabilities and their derivatives: Theoretical and computational results0.73732100%
6Lee, S., Y. Liao, M. H. Seo, and Y. Shin (2022) Fast and robust online inference with stochastic gradient descent via random scaling self0.64422100%
7Lee, S., Y. Liao, M. H. Seo, and Y. Shin (2025) Fast inference for quantile regression with tens of millions of observations self0.64422100%
8Boneva, T., M. Golin, K. Kaufmann, and C. Rauh (2026) Beliefs about maternal labour supply0.51121100%
9Geweke, J., M. P. Keane, and D. E. Runkle (1994) Alternative computational approaches to inference in the multinomial probit model0.51121100%
10Albert, J. H. and S. Chib (1993) Bayesian analysis of binary and polychotomous response data0.40511100%

Showing the top 10 of 29 scored citations.