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did2s：两阶段双重差分方法与 R 软件包AI 解读

Recent work has highlighted the difficulties of estimating difference-in-differences models when treatment timing occurs at different times for different units. This article introduces the R package did2s which implements the estimator introduced in Gardner (2021). The article provides an approachable review of the underlying econometric theory and introduces the syntax for the function did2s. Further, the package introduces a function, event_study, that provides a common…

地理断点差分方法AI 解读

A recent econometric literature has critiqued the use of regression discontinuities where administrative borders serves as the 'cutoff'. Identification in this context is difficult since multiple treatments can change at the cutoff and individuals can easily sort on either side of the border. This note extends the difference-in-discontinuities framework discussed in Grembi et. al. (2016) to a geographic setting. The paper formalizes the identifying assumptions in this…

连续暴露测量有误时的因果暴露—反应函数估计：细颗粒物与全因死亡AI 解读

Numerous studies have examined the associations between long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and adverse health outcomes. Recently, many of these studies have begun to employ high-resolution predicted PM2.5 concentrations, which are subject to measurement error. Previous approaches for exposure measurement error correction have either been applied in non-causal settings or have only considered a categorical exposure. Moreover, most procedures have failed to…

市场均衡中的处理效应AI 解读

Policy-relevant treatment effect estimation in a marketplace setting requires taking into account both the direct benefit of the treatment and any spillovers induced by changes to the market equilibrium. The standard way to address these challenges is to evaluate interventions via cluster-randomized experiments, where each cluster corresponds to an isolated market. This approach, however, cannot be used when we only have access to a single market (or a small number of…

潜在因子模型中的网络依赖检测：偏误修正 CD 检验AI 解读

In a recent paper Juodis and Reese (2022) (JR) show that the application of the CD test proposed by Pesaran (2004) to residuals from panels with latent factors results in over-rejection. They propose a randomized test statistic to correct for over-rejection, and add a screening component to achieve power. This paper considers the same problem but from a different perspective, and shows that the standard CD test remains valid if the latent factors are weak in the sense the…

因果矩阵补全AI 解读

Matrix completion is the study of recovering an underlying matrix from a sparse subset of noisy observations. Traditionally, it is assumed that the entries of the matrix are "missing completely at random" (MCAR), i.e., each entry is revealed at random, independent of everything else, with uniform probability. This is likely unrealistic due to the presence of "latent confounders", i.e., unobserved factors that determine both the entries of the underlying matrix and the…

pyStoNED：用于凸回归与前沿估计的 Python 软件包AI 解读

Shape-constrained nonparametric regression is a growing area in econometrics, statistics, operations research, machine learning and related fields. In the field of productivity and efficiency analysis, recent developments in the multivariate convex regression and related techniques such as convex quantile regression and convex expectile regression have bridged the long-standing gap between the conventional deterministic-nonparametric and stochastic-parametric methods.…

复杂纵向研究中的近端因果推断AI 解读

A standard assumption for causal inference about the joint effects of time-varying treatment is that one has measured sufficient covariates to ensure that within covariate strata, subjects are exchangeable across observed treatment values, also known as "sequential randomization assumption (SRA)". SRA is often criticized as it requires one to accurately measure all confounders. Realistically, measured covariates can rarely capture all confounders with certainty. Often…

整合实验与观测数据的极小极大收敛率和自适应性AI 解读

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are the gold standard for evaluating the causal effect of a treatment; however, they often have limited sample sizes and sometimes poor generalizability. On the other hand, non-randomized, observational data derived from large administrative databases have massive sample sizes and better generalizability, but they are prone to unmeasured confounding bias. It is thus of considerable interest to reconcile effect estimates obtained from…

截断条件期望函数的非参数估计AI 解读

Truncated conditional expectation functions are objects of interest in a wide range of economic applications, including income inequality measurement, financial risk management, and impact evaluation. They typically involve truncating the outcome variable above or below certain quantiles of its conditional distribution. In this paper, based on local linear methods, a novel, two-stage, nonparametric estimator of such functions is proposed. In this estimation problem, the…

高阶最小二乘：评估线性因果模型的局部拟合优度AI 解读

We introduce a simple diagnostic test for assessing the overall or partial goodness of fit of a linear causal model with errors being independent of the covariates. In particular, we consider situations where hidden confounding is potentially present. We develop a method and discuss its capability to distinguish between covariates that are confounded with the response by latent variables and those that are not. Thus, we provide a test and methodology for partial goodness of…

具有潜在大量协变量的断点回归设计AI 解读

This paper studies the case of possibly high-dimensional covariates in the regression discontinuity design (RDD) analysis. In particular, we propose estimation and inference methods for the RDD models with covariate selection which perform stably regardless of the number of covariates. The proposed methods combine the local approach using kernel weights with $\ell_{1}$-penalization to handle high-dimensional covariates. We provide theoretical and numerical results which…

政治学中已发表断点回归研究结果的可靠性AI 解读

The regression discontinuity (RD) design offers identification of causal effects under weak assumptions, earning it a position as a standard method in modern political science research. But identification does not necessarily imply that causal effects can be estimated accurately with limited data. In this paper, we highlight that estimation under the RD design involves serious statistical challenges and investigate how these challenges manifest themselves in the empirical…

用于异质性治疗效应因果推断的倾向得分回归AI 解读

Understanding how treatment effects vary on individual characteristics is critical in the contexts of personalized medicine, personalized advertising and policy design. When the characteristics are of practical interest are only a subset of full covariate, non-parametric estimation is often desirable; but few methods are available due to the computational difficult. Existing non-parametric methods such as the inverse probability weighting methods have limitations that hinder…

随机区组与再随机化实验中 Lasso 调整的设计型理论AI 解读

Blocking, a special case of rerandomization, is routinely implemented in the design stage of randomized experiments to balance the baseline covariates. This study proposes a regression adjustment method based on the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso) to efficiently estimate the average treatment effect in randomized block experiments with high-dimensional covariates. We derive the asymptotic properties of the proposed estimator and outline the conditions…

离散情形下因果推断的自动化方法AI 解读

When causal quantities cannot be point identified, researchers often pursue partial identification to quantify the range of possible values. However, the peculiarities of applied research conditions can make this analytically intractable. We present a general and automated approach to causal inference in discrete settings. We show causal questions with discrete data reduce to polynomial programming problems, and we present an algorithm to automatically bound causal effects…

利用双重负对照识别与估计未观测网络混杂下的因果同伴效应AI 解读

Scientists have been interested in estimating causal peer effects to understand how people's behaviors are affected by their network peers. However, it is well known that identification and estimation of causal peer effects are challenging in observational studies for two reasons. The first is the identification challenge due to unmeasured network confounding, for example, homophily bias and contextual confounding. The second issue is network dependence of observations,…

政策选择与最优臂识别：探索抽样的渐近分析AI 解读

We consider the "policy choice" problem -- otherwise known as best arm identification in the bandit literature -- proposed by Kasy and Sautmann (2021) for adaptive experimental design. Theorem 1 of Kasy and Sautmann (2021) provides three asymptotic results that give theoretical guarantees for exploration sampling developed for this setting. We first show that the proof of Theorem 1 (1) has technical issues, and the proof and statement of Theorem 1 (2) are incorrect. We then…

近端中介分析AI 解读

A common concern when trying to draw causal inferences from observational data is that the measured covariates are insufficiently rich to account for all sources of confounding. In practice, many of the covariates may only be proxies of the latent confounding mechanism. Recent work has shown that in certain settings where the standard 'no unmeasured confounding' assumption fails, proxy variables can be leveraged to identify causal effects. Results currently exist for the…

医疗补助人群推广分析中的条件跨设计综合估计量AI 解读

While much of the causal inference literature has focused on addressing internal validity biases, both internal and external validity are necessary for unbiased estimates in a target population of interest. However, few generalizability approaches exist for estimating causal quantities in a target population when the target population is not well-represented by a randomized study but is reflected when additionally incorporating observational data. To generalize to a target…

估计干扰参数如何降低方差并实现一致方差估计AI 解读

We often estimate a parameter of interest psi when the identifying conditions involve a nuisance parameter theta. Examples from causal inference are Inverse Probability Weighting, Marginal Structural Models and Structural Nested Models. To estimate treatment effects from observational data, these methods posit a (pooled) logistic regression model for the treatment and/or censoring probabilities and estimate these first. These methods are all based on unbiased estimating…

基于异质环境优化的因果估计AI 解读

This paper presents a new optimization approach to causal estimation. Given data that contains covariates and an outcome, which covariates are causes of the outcome, and what is the strength of the causality? In classical machine learning (ML), the goal of optimization is to maximize predictive accuracy. However, some covariates might exhibit a non-causal association with the outcome. Such spurious associations provide predictive power for classical ML, but they prevent us…

通过营养干预试验的现实模拟评估目标最大似然估计的稳健性AI 解读

Several recently developed methods have the potential to harness machine learning in the pursuit of target quantities inspired by causal inference, including inverse weighting, doubly robust estimating equations and substitution estimators like targeted maximum likelihood estimation. There are even more recent augmentations of these procedures that can increase robustness, by adding a layer of cross-validation (cross-validated targeted maximum likelihood estimation and…

调查实验中的拒绝式抽样、再随机化与回归调整AI 解读

Classical randomized experiments, equipped with randomization-based inference, provide assumption-free inference for treatment effects. They have been the gold standard for drawing causal inference and provide excellent internal validity. However, they have also been criticized for questionable external validity, in the sense that the conclusion may not generalize well to a larger population. The randomized survey experiment is a design tool that can help mitigate this…