The Discrete Dantzig Selector: Estimating Sparse Linear Models via Mixed Integer Linear Optimization

We propose a new high-dimensional linear regression estimator: the Discrete Dantzig Selector, which minimizes the number of nonzero regression coefficients, subject to a budget on the maximal absolute correlation between the features and the residuals. We show that the estimator can be expressed as a solution to a Mixed Integer Linear Optimization (MILO) problem---a computationally tractable framework that enables the computation of provably optimal global solutions. Our approach has the appealing characteristic that even if we terminate the optimization problem at an early stage, it exits with a certificate of sub-optimality on the quality of the solution. We develop new discrete first order methods, motivated by recent algorithmic developments in first order continuous convex optimization, to obtain high quality feasible solutions for the Discrete Dantzig Selector problem. Our proposal leads to advantages over the off-the-shelf state-of-the-art integer programming algorithms, which include superior upper bounds obtained for a given computational budget. When a solution obtained from the discrete first order methods is passed as a warm-start to a MILO solver, the performance of the latter improves significantly. Exploiting problem specific information, we propose enhanced MILO formulations that further improve the algorithmic performance of the MILO solvers. We demonstrate, both theoretically and empirically, that, in a wide range of regimes, the statistical properties of the Discrete Dantzig Selector are superior to those of popular $\ell_{1}$-based approaches. For problem instances with $p \approx 2500$ features and $n \approx 900$ observations, our computational framework delivers optimal solutions in a few minutes and certifies optimality within an hour.