mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Largest Rashomon sets of decision trees for robust contextual optimization

arXiv 2610.04385 ↗First posted 3 Oct 2026math.OC cs.LGcited by 0

Not on the map. Why?

Abstract (arXiv)

Many decision trees fit the same data almost equally well, yet they can route a query point to different leaves and induce different local empirical distributions. We study decisions that meet prescribed cost, shortage or risk targets despite this predictive multiplicity. We propose the joint Rashomon and robustness optimization framework for optimal decision trees. It jointly selects an operational decision and the largest Rashomon set of trees, so that the targets hold under the local empirical distribution that every tree in this set induces at the query point. We specialize the framework to the regression setting, and we show that a tree affects the decision only through the training observations sharing the query leaf, which we call its query neighborhood. As a result, the robust problem involves only finitely many distinct constraints, which can be examined in order of increasing estimation loss. We develop a constraint generation algorithm that combines query-path pricing with dynamic programming to identify violating neighborhoods without enumerating trees. On synthetic newsvendor instances, the algorithm typically needs few neighborhoods and runs substantially faster than full neighborhood enumeration. On restaurant demand data, the robust orders increase the mean tolerated excess estimation loss by 17.6% and reduce the empirical conditional value-at-risk of the worst 10% of realized costs by 8.3% relative to the sample average approximation orders of the optimal tree, while the mean cost difference is not statistically significant. An interpretability analysis further shows how the retained neighborhoods explain the decision and its robustness limit.

Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 19 of its 61 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 3 Oct 2026.

Builds on

19 of 61 references.

References · 19

  1. 2018All Models are Wrong, but Many are Useful: Learning a Variable's Importance by Studying an Entire Class of Prediction Models Simultaneouslycited by 373
  2. 2015Data-driven Distributionally Robust Optimization Using the Wasserstein Metric: Performance Guarantees and Tractable Reformulationscited by 291
  3. 2018Melding the Data-Decisions Pipeline: Decision-Focused Learning for Combinatorial Optimizationcited by 227
  4. 2019Predictive Multiplicity in Classificationcited by 166
  5. 2014From Predictive to Prescriptive Analyticscited by 143
  6. 2019Optimal Sparse Decision Treescited by 105
  7. 2020Generalized and Scalable Optimal Sparse Decision Treescited by 100
  8. 2019On the Existence of Simpler Machine Learning Modelscited by 89
  9. 2013Data-Driven Robust Optimizationcited by 85
  10. 2023A Survey of Contextual Optimization Methods for Decision Making under Uncertaintycited by 82
  11. 2022Exploring the Whole Rashomon Set of Sparse Decision Treescited by 81
  12. 2020MurTree: Optimal Classification Trees via Dynamic Programming and Searchcited by 63
7 more
  1. 2020Decision Trees for Decision-Making under the Predict-then-Optimize Frameworkcited by 53
  2. 2022Rashomon Capacity: A Metric for Predictive Multiplicity in Classificationcited by 47
  3. 2017From Data to Decisions: Distributionally Robust Optimization is Optimalcited by 38
  4. 2021Risk Bounds and Calibration for a Smart Predict-then-Optimize Methodcited by 29
  5. 2020Residuals-based distributionally robust optimization with covariate informationcited by 21
  6. 2021Optimal randomized classification treescited by 16
  7. 2025SORTeD Rashomon Sets of Sparse Decision Trees: Anytime Enumerationcited by 6

Built on by

Not cited yet.