Tikhonov Regularization is Optimal Transport Robust under Martingale ConstraintsDownload PDF

Published: 31 Oct 2022, Last Modified: 14 Jan 2023NeurIPS 2022 AcceptReaders: Everyone
Keywords: Distributionally Robust Optimization, Optimal Transport, Tikhonov Regularization
Abstract: Distributionally robust optimization (DRO) has been shown to offer a principled way to regularize learning models. In this paper, we find that Tikhonov regularization is distributionally robust in an optimal transport sense (i.e. if an adversary chooses distributions in a suitable optimal transport neighborhood of the empirical measure), provided that suitable martingale constraints are also imposed. Further, we introduce a relaxation of the martingale constraints which not only provide a unified viewpoint to a class of existing robust methods but also lead to new regularization tools. To realize these novel tools, provably efficient computational algorithms are proposed. As a byproduct, the strong duality theorem proved in this paper can be potentially applied to other problems of independent interest.
TL;DR: In this paper, we find that Tikhonov regularization is exactly distributionally robust in an optimal transport sense.
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