Near-optimal max-affine estimators for convex regression

This paper considers least squares estimators for regression problems over convex, uniformly bounded, uniformly Lipschitz function classes minimizing the empirical risk over max-affine functions (the maximum of finitely many affine functions). Based on new results on nonlinear nonparametric regression and on the approximation accuracy of maxaffine functions, these estimators are proved to achieve the optimal rate of convergence up to logarithmic factors. Preliminary experiments indicate that a simple randomized approximation to the optimal estimator is competitive with state-of-the-art alternatives.