Information criteria for latent factor models: a study on factor pervasiveness and adaptivity

We study the information criteria extensively under general conditions for high-dimensional latent factor models. Upon carefully analyzing the estimation errors of the principal component analysis method, we establish theoretical results on the estimation accuracy of the latent factor scores, incorporating the impact from possibly weak factor pervasiveness; our analysis does not require the same factor strength of all the leading factors. To estimate the number of the latent factors, we propose a new penalty specification with a two-fold consideration: i) being adaptive to the strength of the factor pervasiveness, and ii) favoring more parsimonious models. Our theory establishes the validity of the proposed approach under general conditions. Additionally, we construct examples to demonstrate that when the factor strength is too weak, scenarios exist such that no information criterion can consistently identify the latent factors. We illustrate the performance of the proposed adaptive information criteria with extensive numerical examples, including simulations and a real data analysis.