Monotonic Networks

Monotonicity is a constraint which arises in many application domains. We present a machine learning model, the monotonic network, for which monotonicity can be enforced exactly, i.e., by virtue of functional form . A straightforward method for implementing and training a monotonic network is described. Monotonic networks are proven to be universal approximators of continuous, differentiable monotonic functions. We apply monotonic networks to a real-world task in corporate bond rating prediction and compare them to other approaches