Parametric regression models express the mean of an observation as a function of the regressor variables and the parameters :
Not only do nonparametric regression techniques relax the assumption of linearity in the regression parameters, but they also do not require that you specify a precise functional form for the relationship between response and regressor variables. Consider a regression problem in which the relationship between response Y and regressor X is to be modeled. It is assumed that , where is an unspecified regression function. Two primary approaches in nonparametric regression modeling are as follows:
The SAS/STAT procedures ADAPTIVEREG, LOESS, TPSPLINE, and GAM fit nonparametric regression models by one of these methods.