The params Argument

The params DataFrame is an important concept in estimagic. It collects information on the dimensionality of the optimization problem, lower and upper bounds, categories of parameters and valid ranges for randomly sampled parameter vectors. Moreover, it is the mandatory first argument of any criterion function optimized with estimagic.

If you haven’t done so yet, you should check out our Ordered Logit Example, so you see one small params DataFrame in action.

The Index

If you are not familiar with a pandas MultiIndex we strongly suggest to read up on this and get some practice before you continue. Good resourses are the documentation or Wes McKinney’s book.

The choice of a good index is very important to reap all benefits estimagic offers. If you choose a good one, you can easily select parameters you need to select and express constraints on the parameters in just one line.

Since this is a very project specific choice, estimagic makes absolutely no assumptions on your index, so you are completely free to choose whatever you want. Below we have a few tips to help you in that choice:

1. Choose as many levels as you need to select your parameters in all partitions you ever need. In the ordered logit example this was achieved by two levels, where the first distinguished cutoffs vs utility parameters and the second was the parameter name. In dynamic models with time varying parameters, you often need another level for the period. But, of course, your index should also be as parsimonious as possible. In practice, we always use between 2 and 4 levels.

2. To decide what your levels should be, it is often helpful to make a list of the quantities into which you have to parse your parameters. Then make a list of all constraints you want to express. Build an index that makes those two steps easiest.

The "value" column

The "value" column is the only mandatory column in params. It contains what most other optimization libraries call x, i.e. the start parameters for the optimization.

The result of the optimization will contain a copy of params where the original "value" column has been replaced by the optimal parameters.

The “lower” and “upper” columns

"lower" and "upper" are optional columns with box constraints on the parameters. You can also provide just one of them. For parameters that don’t have a bound, you can fill them with -np.inf and np.inf respectively.

Note that all optimizers in estimagic can deal with box constraints. However, not all more complicated constraints (e.g. “covariance” constraints) are compatible with box constraints. If you select an invalid combination of box constraints and other constraints you will get an error.

The “draw_lower” and “draw_upper” columns

"draw_lower" and "draw_upper" are optional columns that are only used if random start values are drawn, for example in genetic algorithms or when starting a local optimization from several start values. We distinguish this from the box constraints because you might want to leave some parameters unconstrained but still generate random start values.

The “group” column

"group" is an optional column of strings that is only used for visualization purposes. It can be used to partition the parameter into groups that have similar magnitudes and/or are otherwise related. Those parameters will then be grouped in the same sub-plot in the dashboard or the convergence plot.

Parameters whose "group" is None are typically not plotted. This can be used to save resources when using the dashboard on vary large optimizations.

Invalid columns

Some names are reserved for internal use in estimagic. Currently those are:

'_fixed_value', '_is_fixed_to_value', '_is_fixed_to_other', '_pre_replacements', '_post_replacements' as well any name that starts with _internal.