Efficient estimation and variable selection for partially linear single-index-coefficient regression models

A structured model with both single-index and varying coefficients is a powerful tool in modeling high dimensional data. It has been widely used because the single-index can overcome the curse of dimensionality and varying coefficients can allow nonlinear interaction effects in the model. For high dimensional index vectors, variable selection becomes an important question in the model building process. In this paper, we propose an efficient estimation and a variable selection method based on a smoothing spline approach in a partially linear single-index-coefficient regression model. We also propose an efficient algorithm for simultaneously estimating the coefficient functions in a data-adaptive lower-dimensional approximation space and selecting significant variables in the index with the adaptive LASSO penalty. The empirical performance of the proposed method is illustrated with simulated and real data examples.