Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Random Forest Vs Logistic Regression: Binary Classification For Heterogeneous Datasets, Kaitlin Kirasich, Trace Smith, Bivin Sadler

SMU Data Science Review

Selecting a learning algorithm to implement for a particular application on the basis of performance still remains an ad-hoc process using fundamental benchmarks such as evaluating a classifier’s overall loss function and misclassification metrics. In this paper we address the difficulty of model selection by evaluating the overall classification performance between random forest and logistic regression for datasets comprised of various underlying structures: (1) increasing the variance in the explanatory and noise variables, (2) increasing the number of noise variables, (3) increasing the number of explanatory variables, (4) increasing the number of observations. We developed a model evaluation tool capable …