The Choice of Variables for Prediction in Curvilinear Multiple Regression

Abstract

A Bayesian formulation of the problem of analysing data from a curvilinear regression of $y$ on $x_1, x_2, \cdots, x_r$ in order to predict a future value of $y$ is considered. The problem is to obtain a criterion to decide which is the best subset of $x_1, x_2, \cdots, x_r$ to perform this prediction. Under very strict assumptions the criterion obtained is shown to use the same statistic as the orthodox (least squares) approach.