Weak Signals in High-Dimensional Logistic Regression Models

In this work, we addressed parameter estimation and prediction in the high-dimensional sparse logistic regression model through both Monte Carlo simulations and application to real data. We applied two well-known penalized maximum likelihood (ML) methods (LASSO and aLASSO) for variable screening. There may exist overfitting from LASSO or underfitting from aLASSO, making ML estimators based on these models inefficient. Hence, after performing variable selection, we proposed post-selection improved estimation based on linear shrinkage, pretest, and James-Stein shrinkage strategies, which efficiently combine overfitted and underfitted ML estimators. Regardless of the correctness in the variable selection stage, the proposed estimators were shown to be more efficient than the classical ML estimators, which were severely affected by inappropriate variable selection.