每日简报

在线平衡实验设计AI 解读

e consider the experimental design problem in an online environment, an important practical task for reducing the variance of estimates in randomized experiments which allows for greater precision, and in turn, improved decision making. In this work, we present algorithms that build on recent advances in online discrepancy minimization which accommodate both arbitrary treatment probabilities and multiple treatments. The proposed algorithms are computational efficient,…

潜在分组生产函数估计的 Classifier-Lasso 方法AI 解读

I present a new estimation procedure for production functions with latent group structures. I consider production functions that are heterogeneous across groups but time-homogeneous within groups, and where the group membership of the firms is unknown. My estimation procedure is fully data-driven and embeds recent identification strategies from the production function literature into the classifier-Lasso. Simulation experiments demonstrate that firms are assigned to their…

因子增强线性模型的估计及学生成绩数据应用AI 解读

In many longitudinal settings, economic theory does not guide practitioners on the type of restrictions that must be imposed to solve the rotational indeterminacy of factor-augmented linear models. We study this problem and offer several novel results on identification using internally generated instruments. We propose a new class of estimators and establish large sample results using recent developments on clustered samples and high-dimensional models. We carry out…

SurvCaus：生存因果推断中的表征平衡AI 解读

Individual Treatment Effects (ITE) estimation methods have risen in popularity in the last years. Most of the time, individual effects are better presented as Conditional Average Treatment Effects (CATE). Recently, representation balancing techniques have gained considerable momentum in causal inference from observational data, still limited to continuous (and binary) outcomes. However, in numerous pathologies, the outcome of interest is a (possibly censored) survival time.…

动态网络的贝叶斯溢出图AI 解读

We present Bayesian Spillover Graphs (BSG), a novel method for learning temporal relationships, identifying critical nodes, and quantifying uncertainty for multi-horizon spillover effects in a dynamic system. BSG leverages both an interpretable framework via forecast error variance decompositions (FEVD) and comprehensive uncertainty quantification via Bayesian time series models to contextualize temporal relationships in terms of systemic risk and prediction variability.…

f 敏感性模型下的敏感性分析：分布稳健视角AI 解读

This paper introduces the $f$-sensitivity model, a new sensitivity model that characterizes the violation of unconfoundedness in causal inference. It assumes the selection bias due to unmeasured confounding is bounded "on average"; compared with the widely used point-wise sensitivity models in the literature, it is able to capture the strength of unmeasured confounding by not only its magnitude but also the chance of encountering such a magnitude. We propose a framework for…

通过收缩先验控制非高斯过程的灵活性AI 解读

The normal inverse Gaussian (NIG) and generalized asymmetric Laplace (GAL) distributions can be seen as skewed and semi-heavy-tailed extensions of the Gaussian distribution. Models driven by these more flexible noise distributions are then regarded as flexible extensions of simpler Gaussian models. Inferential procedures tend to overestimate the degree of non-Gaussianity in the data and therefore we propose controlling the flexibility of these non-Gaussian models by adding…

二元结果概率预测的诚实校准评估AI 解读

Probability predictions from binary regressions or machine learning methods ought to be calibrated: If an event is predicted to occur with probability $x$, it should materialize with approximately that frequency, which means that the so-called calibration curve $p(\cdot)$ should equal the identity, $p(x) = x$ for all $x$ in the unit interval. We propose honest calibration assessment based on novel confidence bands for the calibration curve, which are valid only subject to…

隐私保护、通信高效且目标灵活的医院质量测量AI 解读

Integrating information from multiple data sources can enable more precise, timely, and generalizable decisions. However, it is challenging to make valid causal inferences using observational data from multiple data sources. For example, in healthcare, learning from electronic health records contained in different hospitals is desirable but difficult due to heterogeneity in patient case mix, differences in treatment guidelines, and data privacy regulations that preclude…

将处理效应推广和迁移至目标总体的一步加权AI 解读

The problem of generalization and transportation of treatment effect estimates from a study sample to a target population is central to empirical research and statistical methodology. In both randomized experiments and observational studies, weighting methods are often used with this objective. Traditional methods construct the weights by separately modeling the treatment assignment and study selection probabilities and then multiplying functions (e.g., inverses) of their…

存在网络溢出的线性成对数据模型推断AI 解读

When using dyadic data (i.e., data indexed by pairs of units), researchers typically assume a linear model, estimate it using Ordinary Least Squares and conduct inference using ``dyadic-robust" variance estimators. The latter assumes that dyads are uncorrelated if they do not share a common unit (e.g., if the same individual is not present in both pairs of data). We show that this assumption does not hold in many empirical applications because indirect links may exist due to…

现代 Gauss–Markov 定理？果真如此？AI 解读

We show that the theorems in Hansen (2021a) (the version accepted by Econometrica), except for one, are not new as they coincide with classical theorems like the good old Gauss-Markov or Aitken Theorem, respectively; the exceptional theorem is incorrect. Hansen (2021b) corrects this theorem. As a result, all theorems in the latter version coincide with the above mentioned classical theorems. Furthermore, we also show that the theorems in Hansen (2022) (the version published…

DAMNETS：生成马尔可夫网络时间序列的深度自回归模型AI 解读

Generative models for network time series (also known as dynamic graphs) have tremendous potential in fields such as epidemiology, biology and economics, where complex graph-based dynamics are core objects of study. Designing flexible and scalable generative models is a very challenging task due to the high dimensionality of the data, as well as the need to represent temporal dependencies and marginal network structure. Here we introduce DAMNETS, a scalable deep generative…

多变量纵向数据因果推断的张量补全：重新评估疫情管制措施AI 解读

We propose a new method that uses tensor completion to estimate causal effects with multivariate longitudinal data, data in which multiple outcomes are observed for each unit and time period. Our motivation is to estimate the number of COVID-19 fatalities prevented by government mandates such as travel restrictions, mask-wearing directives, and vaccination requirements. In addition to COVID-19 fatalities, we observe related outcomes such as the number of fatalities from…

时间序列回归中的稳健推断AI 解读

Least squares regression with heteroskedasticity consistent standard errors ("OLS-HC regression") has proved very useful in cross section environments. However, several major difficulties, which are generally overlooked, must be confronted when transferring the HC technology to time series environments via heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation consistent standard errors ("OLS-HAC regression"). First, in plausible time-series environments, OLS parameter estimates can be…

检验观测数据中因果效应的识别AI 解读

This study demonstrates the existence of a testable condition for the identification of the causal effect of a treatment on an outcome in observational data, which relies on two sets of variables: observed covariates to be controlled for and a suspected instrument. Under a causal structure commonly found in empirical applications, the testable conditional independence of the suspected instrument and the outcome given the treatment and the covariates has two implications.…

目标函数平衡：利用策略性不平衡估计因果效应AI 解读

When estimating the average treatment effect of a binary intervention with weights, investigators are often burdened with how best to leave imbalance in the distributions of observed covariates. This requires that investigators proceed cautiously, as imbalance in key (nonlinear transformations of) covariates potentially introduces bias into the ultimate estimated effect. This paper introduces Targeted Function Balancing (TFB), a flexible covariate balancing weights approach…

三维引力模型中的潜在非平衡性AI 解读

Many panel data sets used for pseudo-poisson estimation of three-way gravity models are implicitly unbalanced because uninformative observations are redundant for the estimation. We show with real data as well as simulations that this phenomenon, which we call latent unbalancedness, amplifies the inference problem recently studied by Weidner and Zylkin (2021).

二维有限方差 VAR(1) 分量乘积的依赖结构及电力预测误差成本应用AI 解读

In this paper we analyze the product of bi-dimensional VAR(1) model components. For the introduced time series we derive general formulas for the autocovariance function and study its properties for different cases of cross-dependence between the VAR(1) model components. The theoretical results are then illustrated in the simulation study for two types of bivariate distributions of the residual series, namely the Gaussian and Student's t. We also show a possible practical…

加权平均分位数回归AI 解读

In this paper, we introduce the weighted-average quantile regression framework, $\int_0^1 q_{Y|X}(u)ψ(u)du = X'β$, where $Y$ is a dependent variable, $X$ is a vector of covariates, $q_{Y|X}$ is the quantile function of the conditional distribution of $Y$ given $X$, $ψ$ is a weighting function, and $β$ is a vector of parameters. We argue that this framework is of interest in many applied settings and develop an estimator of the vector of parameters $β$. We show that our…

函数型数据的因子增强模型AI 解读

We propose modeling raw functional data as a mixture of a smooth function and a high-dimensional factor component. The conventional approach to retrieving the smooth function from the raw data is through various smoothing techniques. However, the smoothing model is inadequate to recover the smooth curve or capture the data variation in some situations. These include cases where there is a large amount of measurement error, the smoothing basis functions are incorrectly…

用于基因表达数据因果推断的贝叶斯 Copula 方向依赖AI 解读

Modelling and understanding directional gene networks is a major challenge in biology as they play an important role in the architecture and function of genetic systems. Copula Directional Dependence (CDD) can measure the directed connectivity among variables without any strict requirements of distributional and linearity assumptions. Furthermore, copulas can achieve that by isolating the dependence structure of a joint distribution. In this work, a novel extension of the…

大型观察数据因果推断的分布式研究设计AI 解读

A fundamental issue in causal inference for Big Observational Data is confounding due to covariate imbalances between treatment groups. This can be addressed by designing the data prior to analysis. Existing design methods, developed for traditional observational studies with single designers, can yield unsatisfactory designs with suboptimum covariate balance for Big Observational Data due to their inability to accommodate the massive dimensionality, heterogeneity, and…

利用生成树对因果估计器进行欠平滑处理AI 解读

Inferring individualised treatment effects from observational data can unlock the potential for targeted interventions. It is, however, hard to infer these effects from observational data. One major problem that can arise is covariate shift where the data (outcome) conditional distribution remains the same but the covariate (input) distribution changes between the training and test set. In an observational data setting, this problem is materialised in control and treated…