# LASSO regularisation parameter from LARS algorithm

In their seminal paper 'Least Angle Regression', Efron et al describe a simple modification of the LARS algorithm which allows to compute full LASSO regularisation paths.

I have implemented this variant sucessfully and usually plot the output path either versus the number of steps (successive iterations of the LARS algorithm) or the $l_1$-norm of the regression coefficients ($\Vert \beta \Vert_1$).

Yet, it seems like most of the packages available out there provide the regularisation path in terms of the LASSO penalisation coefficient $\lambda$ (e.g. LARS in R, where you can play with the 'mode' argument to switch between different representations).

My question is: what is the mechanics used to switch from one representation to the other(s). I have seen various questions related to that (or more specifically the issue of mapping the inequality constraint $\Vert \beta \Vert_1 \leq t$ to an appropriate penalisation term $\lambda \Vert \beta \Vert_1$), but have found no satisfying answer.

I have looked inside some MATLAB code that performs the required transformation and, for each LARS step $k$, this is how $\lambda$ seems to be computed:

$$\lambda(k) = \max( 2 \vert X^T y \vert ),\ \ \ \text{for } k=1$$ $$\lambda(k) = \text{median}( 2 \vert X_{\mathcal{A}_k}^T r_{\mathcal{A}_k} \vert ),\ \ \ \forall k > 1$$

where $X$ (size $n \times p$) and $y$ (size $n \times 1$) denote the standardised inputs/response, $\mathcal{A}_k$ represents the active predictors' set at step $k$ and $r$ represents the current regression residual at step $k$.

I can't grasp the logic behind that calculation. Could someone help?

I have figured out how to perform the required conversion.

Assume that the inputs $X$ are standardised (zero mean, unit variance) and the responses $y$ are centered.

We know that the modified LARS algorithm provides the full LASSO regularisation path, cf. original paper by Efron et al.

This means that, at each iteration $k$, the former algorithm finds an optimal couple $(\beta^*, \lambda^*)$ minimising the regularised loss function: \begin{align} (\beta^*, \lambda^*) &= \text{argmin}_{(\beta,\lambda)} L(\beta,\lambda) \\ L(\beta,\lambda) &= \Vert y-X\beta \Vert_2^2 + \lambda \Vert \beta \Vert_1 \\ &= \sum_{i=1}^N \left(y_i - \sum_{j=1}^p \beta_j X_{ij}\right)^2 + \lambda \sum_{j=1}^p \vert \beta_j \vert \end{align}

For all active components $a=\{1,...,q\}$ in the active set $\mathcal{A}_k$ at the end of step $k$, applying the KKT stationarity condition gives \begin{align} 0 &= \frac{\partial L}{\partial \beta_a}(\beta^*,\lambda^*) \\ &= -2 \sum_{i=1}^N X_{ia} \left(y_i - \sum_{j=1}^q \beta_j^* X_{ij}\right) + \lambda^*\ \text{sign}(\beta_a^*) \end{align}

In other words $$\lambda^* = 2 \frac{\sum_{i=1}^N X_{ia} \left(y_i - \sum_{j=1}^q \beta_j^* X_{ij}\right)}{\text{sign}(\beta_a^*)}$$ or in matrix notations (noting that dividing/multiplying by $\text {sign}(x)$ is the same) the following equation is satisfied for any active component $a$: $$\lambda^* = 2 \ \text{sign}(\beta_a^*) X_a^T r$$

In the original paper, authors mention that for any solution to the LASSO problem, the sign of an active regression weight ($\beta_a^*$) should be identical to the sign of the corresponding active predictor's correlation with the current regression residual ($X_a^T r$), which is only logic since $\lambda^*$ must be positive. Thus we can also write:

$$\lambda^* = 2 \vert X_a^T r \vert$$

In addition, we see that at the final step $k$ (OLS fit, $\beta^* = (X^TX)^{-1}X^T y$), we get $\lambda^* = 0$ due to the orthogonality lemma. The use of the median in the MATLAB implementation I found IMHO seems like an effort to 'average out' numerical errors over all the active components:

$$\lambda^* = \text{median}( 2 \vert X_{\mathcal{A}_k}^T r_{\mathcal{A}_k} \vert ),\ \ \ \forall k > 1$$

To compute the value of $\lambda$ when there are no active components (step $k=1$), one can use the same trick as above but in the infinitesimal limit where all regression weights are zero and only the sign of the first component $b$ to become active (at step $k=2$) matters. This yields:

$$\lambda^* = 2 \ \text{sign}(\beta_b^*) X_b^T y$$ which is strictly equivalent to

$$\lambda^* = \max(2 \vert X^T y \vert), \text { for } k=1$$

because (i) same remark as earlier concerning the sign of regression weights; (ii) the LARS algorithm determines the next component $b$ to enter the active set as the one which is the most correlated with the current residual, which at step $k=1$ is simply $y$.

• This is something that is mentioned in every LASSO work yet no one care to explained it (I don't know if it is very basic or what, but it took me a lot of time to figure it out). I just want to stress out that, although "equivalent", you can only go from one formulation to the other (constrained to unconstrained and viceversa) once you have solved the optimization problem and you have the optimal weights.
– skd
Apr 21, 2016 at 18:08
• I feel the same! As far as your remark is concerned, yes indeed. Here, this is reflected in the residual $r_{\mathcal{A}_k}$, which can only be calculated once the optimal regression weights $\beta_k$ have been obtained at the end of step $k$. Apr 25, 2016 at 10:35