Abstract
We develop a generalized Bayesian information criterion for regression model selection. The new criterion relaxes the usually strong distributional assumption associated with Schwarz's bic by adopting a Wilcoxon-type dispersion function and appropriately adjusting the penalty term. We establish that the Wilcoxon-type generalized bic preserves the consistency of Schwarz's bic without the need to assume a parametric likelihood. We also show that it outperforms Schwarz's bic with heavier-tailed data in the sense that asymptotically it can yield substantially smaller L2 risk. On the other hand, when the data are normally distributed, both criteria have similar L2 risk. The new criterion function is convex and can be conveniently computed using existing statistical software. Our proposal provides a flexible yet highly efficient alternative to Schwarz's bic; at the same time, it broadens the scope of Wilcoxon inference, which has played a fundamental role in classical nonparametric analysis.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 163-173 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Biometrika |
Volume | 96 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 2009 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:I would like to thank Professor D. M. Titterington, an associate editor, a referee, Edsel Pena and Vance Berger for their valuable and constructive comments. This research was supported by a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Keywords
- Bayesian information criterion
- Bic
- Consistency of model selection
- Heavier-tailed distribution
- Lrisk
- Rank
- Wilcoxon inference