When should I transform the target variable?

Created by Steve Hoover, Modified on Sun, Jan 14 at 11:40 AM by Steve Hoover

You should transform the target variable when it is heavily right-skewed (as you would do with predictors, see above), such as when you try to predict amounts purchased, where many people spend little, and few people spend a lot.


Note that target variables cannot be transformed using a Box-Cox transformation, because the Box-Cox transformation is not guaranteed to be reversible. Only log-transforms are possible for target variables.

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