New efficient estimation and variable selection methods for semiparametric varying-coefficient partially linear models

TLDR: This work proposes adaptive penalization methods for variable selection in the semiparametric varying-coefficient partially linear model and proves that the methods possess the oracle property.

Abstract: The complexity of semiparametric models poses new challenges to statistical inference and model selection that frequently arise from real applications In this work, we propose new estimation and variable selection procedures for the semiparametric varying-coefficient partially linear model We first study quantile regression estimates for the nonparametric varying-coefficient functions and the parametric regression coefficients To achieve nice efficiency properties, we further develop a semiparametric composite quantile regression procedure We establish the asymptotic normality of proposed estimators for both the parametric and nonparametric parts and show that the estimators achieve the best convergence rate Moreover, we show that the proposed method is much more efficient than the least-squares-based method for many non-normal errors and that it only loses a small amount of efficiency for normal errors In addition, it is shown that the loss in efficiency is at most 111% for estimating varying coefficient functions and is no greater than 136% for estimating parametric components To achieve sparsity with high-dimensional covariates, we propose adaptive penalization methods for variable selection in the semiparametric varying-coefficient partially linear model and prove that the methods possess the oracle property Extensive Monte Carlo simulation studies are conducted to examine the finite-sample performance of the proposed procedures Finally, we apply the new methods to analyze the plasma beta-carotene level data