每日简报

面板数据模型的稳健密度幂散度估计AI 解读

The panel data regression models have become one of the most widely applied statistical approaches in different fields of research, including social, behavioral, environmental sciences, and econometrics. However, traditional least-squares-based techniques frequently used for panel data models are vulnerable to the adverse effects of the data contamination or outlying observations that may result in biased and inefficient estimates and misleading statistical inference. In…

采用定向 L1 正则化神经网络预测的双重稳健估计偏差—方差权衡AI 解读

The Doubly Robust (DR) estimation of ATE can be carried out in 2 steps, where in the first step, the treatment and outcome are modeled, and in the second step the predictions are inserted into the DR estimator. The model misspecification in the first step has led researchers to utilize Machine Learning algorithms instead of parametric algorithms. However, existence of strong confounders and/or Instrumental Variables (IVs) can lead the complex ML algorithms to provide perfect…

教育系统中的因果推断：图模型方法AI 解读

Educational systems have traditionally been evaluated using cross-sectional studies, namely, examining a pretest, posttest, and single intervention. Although this is a popular approach, it does not model valuable information such as confounding variables, feedback to students, and other real-world deviations of studies from ideal conditions. Moreover, learning inherently is a sequential process and should involve a sequence of interventions. In this paper, we propose various…

在 Stata 中实现改进的矩阵秩检验AI 解读

We develop a Stata command, bootranktest, for implementing the matrix rank test of Chen and Fang (2019) in linear instrumental variable regression models. Existing rank tests employ critical values that may be too small, and hence may not even be first order valid in the sense that they may fail to control the Type I error. By appealing to the bootstrap, they devise a test that overcomes the deficiency of existing tests. The command bootranktest implements the two-step…

通过选择观测内容高效在线估计因果效应AI 解读

Researchers often face data fusion problems, where multiple data sources are available, each capturing a distinct subset of variables. While problem formulations typically take the data as given, in practice, data acquisition can be an ongoing process. In this paper, we aim to estimate any functional of a probabilistic model (e.g., a causal effect) as efficiently as possible, by deciding, at each time, which data source to query. We propose online moment selection (OMS), a…

将洛伦兹曲线的不对称性纳入经济不平等指标AI 解读

The Gini index signals only the dispersion of the distribution and is not very sensitive to income differences at the tails of the distribution. The widely used index of inequality can be adjusted to also measure distributional asymmetry by attaching weights to the distances between the Lorenz curve and the 45-degree line. The measure is equivalent to the Gini if the distribution is symmetric. The alternative measure of inequality inherits good properties from the Gini but…

通过重要性加权从条件矩限制学习因果模型AI 解读

We consider learning causal relationships under conditional moment restrictions. Unlike causal inference under unconditional moment restrictions, conditional moment restrictions pose serious challenges for causal inference, especially in high-dimensional settings. To address this issue, we propose a method that transforms conditional moment restrictions to unconditional moment restrictions through importance weighting, using a conditional density ratio estimator. Using this…

存在网络干扰时注射吸毒人群 HIV 预防干预的因果效应估计AI 解读

Evaluating causal effects in the presence of interference is challenging in network-based studies of hard-to-reach populations. Like many such populations, people who inject drugs (PWID) are embedded in social networks and often exert influence on others in their network. In our setting, the study design is observational with a non-randomized network-based HIV prevention intervention. Information is available on each participant and their connections that confer possible HIV…

双重机器学习与自动混杂变量选择：一个警示AI 解读

Double machine learning (DML) has become an increasingly popular tool for automated variable selection in high-dimensional settings. Even though the ability to deal with a large number of potential covariates can render selection-on-observables assumptions more plausible, there is at the same time a growing risk that endogenous variables are included, which would lead to the violation of conditional independence. This paper demonstrates that DML is very sensitive to the…

近端因果识别算法AI 解读

Unobserved confounding is a fundamental obstacle to establishing valid causal conclusions from observational data. Two complementary types of approaches have been developed to address this obstacle: obtaining identification using fortuitous external aids, such as instrumental variables or proxies, or by means of the ID algorithm, using Markov restrictions on the full data distribution encoded in graphical causal models. In this paper we aim to develop a synthesis of the…

利用深度生存剂量反应函数推荐连续治疗AI 解读

We propose a general formulation for continuous treatment recommendation problems in settings with clinical survival data, which we call the Deep Survival Dose Response Function (DeepSDRF). That is, we consider the problem of learning the conditional average dose response (CADR) function solely from historical data in which observed factors (confounders) affect both observed treatment and time-to-event outcomes. The estimated treatment effect from DeepSDRF enables us to…

算法决策中的动态选择AI 解读

This paper identifies and addresses dynamic selection problems in online learning algorithms with endogenous data. In a contextual multi-armed bandit model, a novel bias (self-fulfilling bias) arises because the endogeneity of the data influences the choices of decisions, affecting the distribution of future data to be collected and analyzed. We propose an instrumental-variable-based algorithm to correct for the bias. It obtains true parameter values and attains low…

条件处理效应分布的部分识别与推断AI 解读

This paper considers identification and inference for the distribution of treatment effects conditional on observable covariates. Since the conditional distribution of treatment effects is not point identified without strong assumptions, we obtain bounds on the conditional distribution of treatment effects by using the Makarov bounds. We also consider the case where the treatment is endogenous and propose two stochastic dominance assumptions to tighten the bounds. We develop…

多维交叉索引数据的经验似然AI 解读

This paper develops a general methodology to conduct statistical inference for observations indexed by multiple sets of entities. We propose a novel multiway empirical likelihood statistic that converges to a chi-square distribution under the non-degenerate case, where corresponding Hoeffding type decomposition is dominated by linear terms. Our methodology is related to the notion of jackknife empirical likelihood but the leave-out pseudo values are constructed by leaving…

对《用于因果推断的贝叶斯回归树模型》的讨论AI 解读

Hahn et al. (2020) offers an extensive study to explicate and evaluate the performance of the BCF model in different settings and provides a detailed discussion about its utility in causal inference. It is a welcomed addition to the causal machine learning literature. I will emphasize the contribution of the BCF model to the field of causal inference through discussions on two topics: 1) the difference between the PS in the BCF model and the Bayesian PS in a Bayesian…

断点回归设计AI 解读

The Regression Discontinuity (RD) design is one of the most widely used non-experimental methods for causal inference and program evaluation. Over the last two decades, statistical and econometric methods for RD analysis have expanded and matured, and there is now a large number of methodological results for RD identification, estimation, inference, and validation. We offer a curated review of this methodological literature organized around the two most popular frameworks…

用于实验设计的合成控制AI 解读

This article studies experimental design in settings where the experimental units are large aggregate entities (e.g., markets), and only one or a small number of units can be exposed to the treatment. In such settings, randomization of the treatment may result in treated and control groups with very different characteristics at baseline, inducing biases. We propose a variety of experimental non-randomized synthetic control designs (Abadie, Diamond and Hainmueller, 2010,…

整群随机实验的模型辅助分析AI 解读

Cluster-randomized experiments are widely used due to their logistical convenience and policy relevance. To analyze them properly, we must address the fact that the treatment is assigned at the cluster level instead of the individual level. Standard analytic strategies are regressions based on individual data, cluster averages, and cluster totals, which differ when the cluster sizes vary. These methods are often motivated by models with strong and unverifiable assumptions,…

重复截面设计中的非参数异质性处理效应估计AI 解读

Identifying heterogeneity in a population's response to a health or policy intervention is crucial for evaluating and informing policy decisions. We propose a novel heterogeneous treatment effect estimator in the difference-in-differences design with repeated cross sectional data, where we observe different samples of a population at two time periods separated by the onset of a policy intervention, as well as samples of a population that serves as the control. Our estimator…

离散选择中的选择集混杂AI 解读

Standard methods in preference learning involve estimating the parameters of discrete choice models from data of selections (choices) made by individuals from a discrete set of alternatives (the choice set). While there are many models for individual preferences, existing learning methods overlook how choice set assignment affects the data. Often, the choice set itself is influenced by an individual's preferences; for instance, a consumer choosing a product from an online…

SIMPLE：大型网络中成员归属特征的统计推断AI 解读

Network data is prevalent in many contemporary big data applications in which a common interest is to unveil important latent links between different pairs of nodes. Yet a simple fundamental question of how to precisely quantify the statistical uncertainty associated with the identification of latent links still remains largely unexplored. In this paper, we propose the method of statistical inference on membership profiles in large networks (SIMPLE) in the setting of…

COVID-19 疫情时期的因果推断AI 解读

In this paper we develop statistical methods for causal inference in epidemics. Our focus is in estimating the effect of social mobility on deaths in the Covid-19 pandemic. We propose a marginal structural model motivated by a modified version of a basic epidemic model. We estimate the counterfactual time series of deaths under interventions on mobility. We conduct several types of sensitivity analyses. We find that the data support the idea that reduced mobility causes…

名片交换网络的结构模型AI 解读

Social and professional networks affect labor market dynamics, knowledge diffusion and new business creation. To understand the determinants of how these networks are formed in the first place, we analyze a unique dataset of business cards exchanges among a sample of over 240,000 users of the multi-platform contact management and professional social networking tool for individuals Eight. We develop a structural model of network formation with strategic interactions, and we…

k 三角忠实性假设下非高斯因果效应的统一一致估计AI 解读

Kalisch and Bühlmann (2007) showed that for linear Gaussian models, under the Causal Markov Assumption, the Strong Causal Faithfulness Assumption, and the assumption of causal sufficiency, the PC algorithm is a uniformly consistent estimator of the Markov Equivalence Class of the true causal DAG for linear Gaussian models; it follows from this that for the identifiable causal effects in the Markov Equivalence Class, there are uniformly consistent estimators of causal effects…