D4 Published development or research report or study
Partial frontiers are not quantiles
Authors: Dai Sheng, Kuosmanen Timo, Zhou Xun
Publisher: arXiv
Publication year: 2022
Series title: Statistics > Methodology
Number in series: 2205.11885
Web address : https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.11885
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/175356271
Quantile regression and partial frontier are two distinct approaches to nonparametric quantile frontier estimation. In this article, we demonstrate that partial frontiers are not quantiles. Both convex and nonconvex technologies are considered. To this end, we propose convexified order-α as an alternative to convex quantile regression (CQR) and convex expectile regression (CER), and two new nonconvex estimators: isotonic CQR and isotonic CER as alternatives to order-α. A Monte Carlo study shows that the partial frontier estimators perform relatively poorly and even can violate the quantile property, particularly at low quantiles. In addition, the simulation evidence shows that the indirect expectile approach to estimating quantiles generally outperforms the direct quantile estimations. We further find that the convex estimators outperform their nonconvex counterparts owing to their global shape constraints. An illustration of those estimators is provided using a real-world dataset of U.S. electric power plants.
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