每日简报

利用多模态代理变量估计在线评论多维属性的因果效应AI 解读

Online reviews enable consumers to engage with companies and provide important feedback. Due to the complexity of the high-dimensional text, these reviews are often simplified as a single numerical score, e.g., ratings or sentiment scores. This work empirically examines the causal effects of user-generated online reviews on a granular level: we consider multiple aspects, e.g., the Food and Service of a restaurant. Understanding consumers' opinions toward different aspects…

贝叶斯非参数因果推断：方法与理由AI 解读

Spurred on by recent successes in causal inference competitions, Bayesian nonparametric (and high-dimensional) methods have recently seen increased attention in the causal inference literature. In this paper, we present a comprehensive overview of Bayesian nonparametric applications to causal inference. Our aims are to (i) introduce the fundamental Bayesian nonparametric toolkit; (ii) discuss how to determine which tool is most appropriate for a given problem; and (iii) show…

未知聚类结构下的面板数据AI 解读

Clustered standard errors and approximate randomization tests are popular inference methods that allow for dependence within observations. However, they require researchers to know the cluster structure ex ante. We propose a procedure to help researchers discover clusters in panel data. Our method is based on thresholding an estimated long-run variance-covariance matrix and requires the panel to be large in the time dimension, but imposes no lower bound on the number of…

利用多层回归与后分层估计处理效应AI 解读

Multilevel regression and poststratification (MRP) is a flexible modeling technique that has been used in a broad range of small-area estimation problems. Traditionally, MRP studies have been focused on non-causal settings, where estimating a single population value using a nonrepresentative sample was of primary interest. In this manuscript, MRP-style estimators will be evaluated in an experimental causal inference setting. We simulate a large-scale randomized control trial…

存在干扰时的平均直接与间接因果效应AI 解读

We propose a definition for the average indirect effect of a binary treatment in the potential outcomes model for causal inference under cross-unit interference. Our definition is analogous to the standard definition of the average direct effect, and can be expressed without needing to compare outcomes across multiple randomized experiments. We show that the proposed indirect effect satisfies a decomposition theorem whereby, in a Bernoulli trial, the sum of the average…

连续处理的因果偏差量化AI 解读

We extend the definition of the marginal causal effect to the continuous treatment setting and develop a novel characterization of causal bias in the framework of structural causal models. We prove that our derived bias expression is zero if, and only if, the causal effect is identifiable via covariate adjustment. We show that under some restrictions on the structural equations, the causal bias can be estimated efficiently and allows for causal regularization of predictive…

用随机网络 SIR 模型连接新冠疫情理论与证据AI 解读

This paper develops an individual-based stochastic network SIR model for the empirical analysis of the Covid-19 pandemic. It derives moment conditions for the number of infected and active cases for single as well as multigroup epidemic models. These moment conditions are used to investigate the identification and estimation of the transmission rates. The paper then proposes a method that jointly estimates the transmission rate and the magnitude of under-reporting of…