Penalized maximum likelihood estimates of genetic covariance matrices with shrinkage towards phenotypic dispersion

A simulation study examining the effects of ‘regularization’ on estimates of genetic covariance matrices for small samples is presented. This is achieved by penalizing the likelihood, and three types of penalties are examined. It is shown that regularized estimation can substantially enhance the accuracy of estimates of genetic parameters. Penalties shrinking estimates of genetic covariances or correlations towards their phenotypic counterparts acted somewhat differently to those aimed reducing the spread of sample eigenvalues. While improvements of estimates were found to be comparable overall, shrinkage of genetic towards phenotypic correlations resulted in least bias.