Robust Data Valuation via Variance Reduced Data Shapley

Data valuation, especially quantifying data value in algorithmic prediction and decision-making, is a fundamental problem in data trading scenarios. The most widely used method is to define the data Shapley and approximate it by means of the permutation sampling algorithm. To make up for the large estimation variance of the permutation sampling that hinders the development of the data marketplace, we propose a more robust data valuation method using stratified sampling, named variance reduced data Shapley (VRDS for short). We theoretically show how to stratify, how many samples are taken at each stratum, and the sample complexity analysis of VRDS. Finally, the effectiveness of VRDS is illustrated in different types of datasets and data removal applications.