Summary
Estimation of a smooth predictor function in logistic regression requires the determination of a smoothing parameter. Several cross-validatory criteria for finding such a smoothing parameter have been proposed generalizing techniques that are asymptotically well performing for Gaussian data. Here it is argued that a smoothing parameter is a model parameter and can be estimated cross-validating model fit criteria for generalized regression models taking explicitly into account the non-Gaussian distribution of the observed variables. Several criteria based on model choice for binary data are introduced and their performance is investigated in a simulation study where smooth predictor functions are estimated by smoothing splines. The empirical results indicate that cross-validated model fit criteria perform well.
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Acknowledgements
The programs for evaluating the results of smoothing were provided by Elmar Plischke using GAUSS. This study was part of a project on smooth risk functions in 1:1-matched case-control studies and thus integrated within a cooperation with G. Osius. It was granted by the German National Science Foundation (DGF), grant OS-144/1.
The author thanks the referees for very carefully reading the paper and detailed comments that considerably helped to improve the first draft.
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van der Linde, A. Estimating the smoothing parameter in generalized spline-based regression. Computational Statistics 16, 43–71 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/s001800100051
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s001800100051