We develop pre-trained estimators for structural econometric models. The estimator uses a neural net to recognize the structural model's parameter from data patterns. Once trained, the estimator can be shared and applied to different datasets at negligible cost and effort. Under sufficient training, the estimator converges to the Bayesian posterior given the data patterns. As an illustration, we construct a pretrained estimator for a sequential search model (available at pnnehome.github.io). Estimation takes only seconds and achieves high accuracy on 12 real datasets. More broadly, pretrained estimators can make structural models much easier to use and more accessible.
翻译:我们开发了用于结构计量经济学模型的预训练估计器。该估计器利用神经网络从数据模式中识别结构模型的参数。一旦训练完成,该估计器可以共享并以极低的成本和工作量应用于不同的数据集。在充分训练的条件下,估计器收敛于给定数据模式的贝叶斯后验分布。作为示例,我们构建了一个用于序列搜索模型的预训练估计器(可在pnnehome.github.io获取)。估计过程仅需数秒,并在12个真实数据集上实现了高精度。更广泛而言,预训练估计器能够显著降低结构模型的使用难度并提高其可及性。