Consistent regression using data-dependent coverings

Abstract

We introduce a procedure to generate an estimator of the regression function based on a data-dependent quasi-covering of the feature space. A quasi-partition is generated from the quasi-covering and the estimator predicts the conditional empirical expectation over the cells of the quasi-partition. We provide sufficient conditions to ensure the consistency of the estimator. Each element of the quasi-covering is labeled as significant or insignificant. We avoid the condition of cell shrinkage commonly found in the literature for data-dependent partitioning estimators. This reduces the number of elements in the quasi-covering. An important feature of our estimator is that it is interpretable.

The proof of the consistency is based on a control of the convergence rate of the empirical estimation of conditional expectations, which is interesting in itself.