A fast procedure for outlier diagnostics in large regression problems

We propose a procedure for computing a fast approximation to regression estimates based on the minimization of a robust scale. The procedure can be applied with a large number of independent variables where the usual algorithms require an unfeasible or extremely costly computer time. Also, it can be incorporated in any high-breakdown estimation method and may improve it with just little additional computer time. The procedure minimizes the robust scale over a set of tentative parameter vectors estimated by least squares after eliminating a set of possible outliers, which are obtained as follows. We represent each observation by the vector of changes of the least squares forecasts of the observation when each of the data points is deleted. Then we obtain the sets of possible outliers as the extreme points in the principal components of these vectors, or as the set of points with large residuals. The good performance of the procedure allows identification of multiple outliers, avoiding masking effects. We investigate the procedure's efficiency for robust estimation and power as an outlier detection tool in a large real dataset and in a simulation study.