# Benign Overfitting in Linear Regression

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1906.11300 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.11300/

## Key facts

- Cited by 549 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 26 Jun 2019.

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 549)

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- [Learning Gaussian Mixtures with Generalised Linear Models: Precise Asymptotics in High-dimensions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.03791/) (2021)
- [Uniform Convergence of Interpolators: Gaussian Width, Norm Bounds, and Benign Overfitting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.09276/) (2021)
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## Abstract (arXiv)

The phenomenon of benign overfitting is one of the key mysteries uncovered by deep learning methodology: deep neural networks seem to predict well, even with a perfect fit to noisy training data. Motivated by this phenomenon, we consider when a perfect fit to training data in linear regression is compatible with accurate prediction. We give a characterization of linear regression problems for which the minimum norm interpolating prediction rule has near-optimal prediction accuracy. The characterization is in terms of two notions of the effective rank of the data covariance. It shows that overparameterization is essential for benign overfitting in this setting: the number of directions in parameter space that are unimportant for prediction must significantly exceed the sample size. By studying examples of data covariance properties that this characterization shows are required for benign overfitting, we find an important role for finite-dimensional data: the accuracy of the minimum norm interpolating prediction rule approaches the best possible accuracy for a much narrower range of properties of the data distribution when the data lies in an infinite dimensional space versus when the data lies in a finite dimensional space whose dimension grows faster than the sample size.