Data augmentation for non-Gaussian regression models using variance-mean mixtures

Abstract: We use the theory of normal variance-mean mixtures to derive a data-augmentation scheme for a class of common regularization problems. This generalizes existing theory on normal variance mixtures for priors in regression and classification. It also allows variants of the expectation-maximization algorithm to be brought to bear on a wider range of models than previously appreciated. We demonstrate the method on several examples, including sparse quantile regression and binary logistic regression. We also show that quasi-Newton acceleration can substantially improve the speed of the algorithm without compromising its robustness.