In the previous article in this series, we showed that common ensemble models like random forest and gradient boosting are uncalibrated: they are not guaranteed to estimate aggregates or rollups of the data in an unbiased way. However, they can be preferable to calibrated models such as linear or generalized linear regression, when they make more accurate predictions on individuals. In this article, we’ll demonstrate one ad-hoc method for calibrating an uncalibrated model with respect to specific grouping variables. This “polishing step” potentially returns a model that estimates certain rollups in an unbiased way, while retaining good performance on individual predictions.
This is a great explanation of the process as well as its risks and limitations.