A Modern Maximum-Likelihood Theory for High-Dimensional Logistic Regression
Talkat Robust and High-Dimensional Statistics (Simons Institute workshop, 2018) · 2018-10-29..11-02·
summary
Claims that classical logistic MLE breaks down when p/n = κ is nonnegligible: coordinates concentrate around α·β_j (systematically inflated), their variance blows up to σ^2 (not Fisher info), and the LRT converges to c·χ^2 with c>1. Tools: an explicit three–equation system for (α,σ,λ), AMP with state evolution, leave‑one‑out and random convex geometry to locate the MLE phase transition (Cover point κ=0.5) and to predict finite‑sample corrections. Simulations and an estimator for γ recover uniform p‑values; Bartlett correction fails.
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chapters (36)
- 0:00Intro
- 0:37Logistic regression in R: n = 200, p = 60
- 1:29Logistic Regression setting
- 2:18Basic staples of classical theory
- 3:52Scaling
- 5:00Unbiasedness of MLE? First Example
- 5:58Unbiasedness of MLE? Second example
- 6:34Consequence for predicted probabilities
- 6:52Accuracy of standard errors?
- 7:47Accuracy of Wilks' theorem?
- 8:30Merely a finite sample effect?
- 10:26Bartlett corrected p-values
- 11:08Failures of Classical Theory
- 11:42Asymptotic Setting
- 13:05When does the MLE exist?
- 13:32Analytical characterization
- 16:08A nonlinear system of equations
- 18:12Average' MLE behavior
- 21:32Variance
- 22:58Distribution of nulls
- 23:48Distribution of the LRT
- 24:27Bulk and tail asymptotics using our correction
- 24:51Non-Gaussian covariates
- 25:59Tools and Inspiration
- 26:57Approximate message passing (AMP) for the MLE
- 28:47The algorithm
- 29:57Why this algorithm?
- 31:35State evolution
- 33:07Correctness of SE
- 34:26Convergence to the MLE
- 35:17Analysis of LRT
- 36:00Leave-one-out representation
- 36:52Main steps: LRT
- 37:45Recap
- 38:22Empirical performance: null LLR p-values
- 38:37Summary and future research
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