每日简报

使用边际约束模型估计条件平均处理效应AI 解读

Treatment effect estimates are often available from randomized controlled trials as a single average treatment effect for a certain patient population. Estimates of the conditional average treatment effect (CATE) are more useful for individualized treatment decision making, but randomized trials are often too small to estimate the CATE. Examples in medical literature make use of the relative treatment effect (e.g. an odds-ratio) reported by randomized trials to estimate the…

利用概率因果模型生成高保真图像反事实AI 解读

We present a general causal generative modelling framework for accurate estimation of high fidelity image counterfactuals with deep structural causal models. Estimation of interventional and counterfactual queries for high-dimensional structured variables, such as images, remains a challenging task. We leverage ideas from causal mediation analysis and advances in generative modelling to design new deep causal mechanisms for structured variables in causal models. Our…

灵活机器学习估计条件平均处理效应：优势与隐患AI 解读

Causal inference from observational data requires untestable identification assumptions. If these assumptions apply, machine learning (ML) methods can be used to study complex forms of causal effect heterogeneity. Recently, several ML methods were developed to estimate the conditional average treatment effect (CATE). If the features at hand cannot explain all heterogeneity, the individual treatment effects (ITEs) can seriously deviate from the CATE. In this work, we…

无需排除限制的工具变量回归AI 解读

We study identification and estimation of endogenous linear and nonlinear regression models without excluded instrumental variables, based on the standard mean independence condition and a nonlinear relevance condition. Based on the identification results, we propose two semiparametric estimators as well as a discretization-based estimator that does not require any nonparametric regressions. We establish their asymptotic normality and demonstrate via simulations their robust…

利用异方差噪声模型识别患者特定的疾病根因AI 解读

Complex diseases are caused by a multitude of factors that may differ between patients even within the same diagnostic category. A few underlying root causes may nevertheless initiate the development of disease within each patient. We therefore focus on identifying patient-specific root causes of disease, which we equate to the sample-specific predictivity of the exogenous error terms in a structural equation model. We generalize from the linear setting to the…

因果推断不只是统计问题AI 解读

This paper introduces a collection of four data sets, similar to Anscombe's Quartet, that aim to highlight the challenges involved when estimating causal effects. Each of the four data sets is generated based on a distinct causal mechanism: the first involves a collider, the second involves a confounder, the third involves a mediator, and the fourth involves the induction of M-Bias by an included factor. The paper includes a mathematical summary of each data set, as well as…

弱识别函数的强识别泛函推断AI 解读

In a variety of applications, including nonparametric instrumental variable (NPIV) analysis, proximal causal inference under unmeasured confounding, and missing-not-at-random data with shadow variables, we are interested in inference on a continuous linear functional (e.g., average causal effects) of nuisance function (e.g., NPIV regression) defined by conditional moment restrictions. These nuisance functions are generally weakly identified, in that the conditional moment…

合成控制方法的设计视角AI 解读

Since their introduction in Abadie and Gardeazabal (2003), Synthetic Control (SC) methods have quickly become one of the leading methods for estimating causal effects in observational studies in settings with panel data. Formal discussions often motivate SC methods by the assumption that the potential outcomes were generated by a factor model. Here we study SC methods from a design-based perspective, assuming a model for the selection of the treated unit(s) and period(s). We…

以三维图像为中介的因果中介分析AI 解读

Causal mediation analysis is increasingly abundant in biology, psychology, and epidemiology studies, etc. In particular, with the advent of the big data era, the issue of high-dimensional mediators is becoming more prevalent. In neuroscience, with the widespread application of magnetic resonance technology in the field of brain imaging, studies on image being a mediator emerged. In this study, a novel causal mediation analysis method with a three-dimensional image mediator…

电子健康记录比较效果研究中信息性缺失数据的双重抽样AI 解读

Missing data arise in most applied settings and are ubiquitous in electronic health records (EHR). When data are missing not at random (MNAR) with respect to measured covariates, sensitivity analyses are often considered. These post-hoc solutions, however, are often unsatisfying in that they are not guaranteed to yield concrete conclusions. Motivated by an EHR-based study of long-term outcomes following bariatric surgery, we consider the use of double sampling as a means to…

基于回归秩得分的异质性分位数处理效应去偏推断AI 解读

Understanding treatment effect heterogeneity is vital to many scientific fields because the same treatment may affect different individuals differently. Quantile regression provides a natural framework for modeling such heterogeneity. We propose a new method for inference on heterogeneous quantile treatment effects in the presence of high-dimensional covariates. Our estimator combines an $\ell_1$-penalized regression adjustment with a quantile-specific bias correction scheme…

方差依赖界下渐近最优的固定预算最佳臂识别AI 解读

We investigate the problem of fixed-budget best arm identification (BAI) for minimizing expected simple regret. In an adaptive experiment, a decision maker draws one of multiple treatment arms based on past observations and observes the outcome of the drawn arm. After the experiment, the decision maker recommends the treatment arm with the highest expected outcome. We evaluate the decision based on the expected simple regret, which is the difference between the expected…

重尾分布极端分位数处理效应的估计与推断AI 解读

Causal inference for extreme events has many potential applications in fields such as climate science, medicine and economics. We study the extremal quantile treatment effect of a binary treatment on a continuous, heavy-tailed outcome. Existing methods are limited to the case where the quantile of interest is within the range of the observations. For applications in risk assessment, however, the most relevant cases relate to extremal quantiles that go beyond the data range.…

DRCFS：双重稳健因果特征选择AI 解读

Knowing the features of a complex system that are highly relevant to a particular target variable is of fundamental interest in many areas of science. Existing approaches are often limited to linear settings, sometimes lack guarantees, and in most cases, do not scale to the problem at hand, in particular to images. We propose DRCFS, a doubly robust feature selection method for identifying the causal features even in nonlinear and high dimensional settings. We provide…

m 阶逆随机占优的非参数检验AI 解读

This paper proposes a nonparametric test for $m$th-degree inverse stochastic dominance which is a powerful tool for ranking distribution functions according to social welfare. We construct the test based on empirical process theory. The test is shown to be asymptotically size controlled and consistent. The good finite sample properties of the test are illustrated via Monte Carlo simulations. We apply our test to the inequality growth in the United Kingdom from 1995 to 2010.

一般政策干预的无条件效应AI 解读

This paper studies the unconditional effects of a general policy intervention, which includes location-scale shifts and simultaneous shifts as special cases. The location-scale shift is intended to study a counterfactual policy aimed at changing not only the mean or location of a covariate but also its dispersion or scale. The simultaneous shift refers to the situation where shifts in two or more covariates take place simultaneously. For example, a shift in one covariate is…

改进重复测量混合模型以稳健提高随机试验精度AI 解读

In randomized trials, repeated measures of the outcome are routinely collected. The mixed model for repeated measures (MMRM) leverages the information from these repeated outcome measures, and is often used for the primary analysis to estimate the average treatment effect at the primary endpoint. MMRM, however, can suffer from bias and precision loss when it models intermediate outcomes incorrectly, and hence fails to use the post-randomization information harmlessly. This…

利用协变量调整伪值回归提高限制平均生存时间估计精度AI 解读

Covariate adjustment is desired by both practitioners and regulators of randomized clinical trials because it improves precision for estimating treatment effects. However, covariate adjustment presents a particular challenge in time-to-event analysis. We propose to apply covariate adjusted pseudovalue regression to estimate between-treatment difference in restricted mean survival times (RMST). Our proposed method incorporates a prognostic covariate to increase precision of…

整群随机试验最优设计：方法与结果概览AI 解读

There are multiple cluster randomised trial designs that vary in when the clusters cross between control and intervention states, when observations are made within clusters, and how many observations are made at that time point. Identifying the most efficient study design is complex though, owing to the correlation between observations within clusters and over time. In this article, we present a review of statistical and computational methods for identifying optimal cluster…

含预定协变量的二元选择面板模型中的识别AI 解读

We study identification in a binary choice panel data model with a single \emph{predetermined} binary covariate (i.e., a covariate sequentially exogenous conditional on lagged outcomes and covariates). The choice model is indexed by a scalar parameter $θ$, whereas the distribution of unit-specific heterogeneity, as well as the feedback process that maps lagged outcomes into future covariate realizations, are left unrestricted. We provide a simple condition under which $θ$ is…

个性化政策分析中的特征选择AI 解读

In this paper, we propose Forest-PLS, a feature selection method for analyzing policy effect heterogeneity in a more flexible and comprehensive manner than is typically available with conventional methods. In particular, our method is able to capture policy effect heterogeneity both within and across subgroups of the population defined by observable characteristics. To achieve this, we employ partial least squares to identify target components of the population and causal…

因果提升与链接预测AI 解读

Existing causal models for link prediction assume an underlying set of inherent node factors -- an innate characteristic defined at the node's birth -- that governs the causal evolution of links in the graph. In some causal tasks, however, link formation is path-dependent: The outcome of link interventions depends on existing links. Unfortunately, these existing causal methods are not designed for path-dependent link formation, as the cascading functional dependencies…

协变量自适应随机化与不完全依从下的推断AI 解读

This paper studies inference in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with covariate-adaptive randomization (CAR) and imperfect compliance of a binary treatment. In this context, we study inference on the LATE. As in Bugni et al. (2018,2019), CAR refers to randomization schemes that first stratify according to baseline covariates and then assign treatment status so as to achieve "balance" within each stratum. In contrast to these papers, however, we allow participants of the…