Q:

mnlogit regression, singular matrix error

My regression model using statsmodels in python works with 48,065 lines of data, but while adding new data I have tracked down one line of code that produces a singular matrix error. Answers to similar questions seem to suggest missing data but I have checked and there is nothing visibibly irregular from the error prone row of code causing me major issues. Does anyone know if this is an error in my code or knows a solution to fix it as I'm out of ideas.
Data2.csv -  http://www.sharecsv.com/s/8ff31545056b8864f2ad26ef2fe38a09/Data2.csv
import pandas as pd
import statsmodels.formula.api as smf

data = pd.read_csv("Data2.csv")
formula = 'is_success ~ goal_angle + goal_distance + np_distance + fp_distance + is_fast_attack + is_header + prev_tb + is_rebound + is_penalty + prev_cross + is_tb2 + is_own_goal + is_cutback + asst_dist'
model = smf.mnlogit(formula, data=data, missing='drop').fit()

CSV Line producing error: 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,22.94476,16.877204,13.484806,20.924627,0,0,11.765203
Error with Problematic line within the model:
runfile('C:/Users/User1/Desktop/Model Check.py', wdir='C:/Users/User1/Desktop')
Optimization terminated successfully.
         Current function value: 0.264334
         Iterations 20
Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "<ipython-input-76-eace3b458e24>", line 1, in <module>
    runfile('C:/Users/User1/Desktop/xG_xA Model Check.py', wdir='C:/Users/User1/Desktop')

  File "C:\Users\User1\Anaconda2\lib\site-packages\spyderlib\widgets\externalshell\sitecustomize.py", line 714, in runfile
    execfile(filename, namespace)

  File "C:\Users\User1\Anaconda2\lib\site-packages\spyderlib\widgets\externalshell\sitecustomize.py", line 74, in execfile
    exec(compile(scripttext, filename, 'exec'), glob, loc)

  File "C:/Users/User1/Desktop/xG_xA Model Check.py", line 6, in <module>
    model = smf.mnlogit(formula, data=data, missing='drop').fit()

  File "C:\Users\User1\Anaconda2\lib\site-packages\statsmodels\discrete\discrete_model.py", line 587, in fit
    disp=disp, callback=callback, **kwargs)

  File "C:\Users\User1\Anaconda2\lib\site-packages\statsmodels\base\model.py", line 434, in fit
    Hinv = np.linalg.inv(-retvals['Hessian']) / nobs

  File "C:\Users\User1\Anaconda2\lib\site-packages\numpy\linalg\linalg.py", line 526, in inv
    ainv = _umath_linalg.inv(a, signature=signature, extobj=extobj)

  File "C:\Users\User1\Anaconda2\lib\site-packages\numpy\linalg\linalg.py", line 90, in _raise_linalgerror_singular
    raise LinAlgError("Singular matrix")

LinAlgError: Singular matrix

A:

As far as I can see:
The problem is the variable is_own_goal because all observation where this is 1 also have the dependent variable is_success equal to 1. That means there is no variation in the outcome because is_own_goal already specifies that it is a success. 
As a consequence, we cannot estimate a coefficient for is_own_goal, the coefficient is not identified by the data. The variance of the coefficient would be infinite and inverting the Hessian to get the covariance of the parameter estimates fails because the Hessian is singular.
Given floating point precision, with some computational noise the hessian might be invertible and the Singular Matrix exception would not show up. Which, I guess, is the reason that it works with some but not all observations.
BTW: If the dependent variable, endog, is binary, then Logit is more appropriate, even though MNLogit has it as a special case.
BTW: Penalized estimation would be another way to force an estimate even in singular cases, although the coefficient would still not be identified by the data and be just a consequence of the penalization.
In this example, 
mod = smf.logit(formula, data=data, missing='drop').fit_regularized()
works for me. This is L1 penalization. In statsmodels 0.8, there is also elastic net penalization for GLM which has Binomial (i.e. Logit) as a family.

