每日简报

连续处理后变量主层分析的贝叶斯非参数方法AI 解读

Principal stratification provides a causal inference framework for investigating treatment effects in the presence of a post-treatment variable. Principal strata play a key role in characterizing the treatment effect by identifying groups of units with the same or similar values for the potential post-treatment variable at all treatment levels. The literature has focused mainly on binary post-treatment variables. Few papers considered continuous post-treatment variables. In…

Causal-ICM：用多任务高斯过程融合数据估计异质处理效应AI 解读

Bridging the gap between internal and external validity is crucial for heterogeneous treatment effect estimation. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs), favoured for their internal validity due to randomisation, often encounter challenges in generalising findings due to strict eligibility criteria. Observational studies, on the other hand, may provide stronger external validity through larger and more representative samples but can suffer from compromised internal validity due…

因果 K 均值聚类AI 解读

Causal effects are often characterized with population summaries. These might provide an incomplete picture when there are heterogeneous treatment effects across subgroups. Since the subgroup structure is typically unknown, it is more challenging to identify and evaluate subgroup effects than population effects. We propose a new solution to this problem: \emph{Causal k-Means Clustering}, which leverages the k-means clustering algorithm to uncover the unknown subgroup…

分布合成控制的渐近性质AI 解读

As an alternative to synthetic control, the distributional Synthetic Control (DSC) proposed by Gunsilius (2023) provides estimates for quantile treatment effect and thus enabling researchers to comprehensively understand the impact of interventions in causal inference. But the asymptotic properties of DSC have not been built. In this paper, we first establish the DSC estimator's asymptotic optimality in the essence that the treatment effect estimator given by DSC achieves…

真实处理不可观测时的因果推断AI 解读

In many causal inference settings, the treatment of interest is not directly observed; instead, one or more error-prone proxy measurements are available, creating a fundamental identification challenge. Building on identification methods for hidden treatments with proxies, we develop a general semiparametric framework for causal effect estimation that accommodates several common estimands. Hidden treatment models differ fundamentally from classical missing-data settings,…

存在未知混杂因素时的二元关系处理效应估计AI 解读

This paper proposes estimation and inference methods for assessing treatment effects with dyadic data. Under the assumption that the treatments follow an exchangeable distribution, our approach allows for the presence of any unobserved confounding factors that potentially cause endogeneity of treatment choice without requiring additional information other than the treatments and outcomes. Building on the literature of graphon estimation in network data analysis, we propose a…

类别型工具变量模型：刻画、部分识别与统计推断AI 解读

We study categorical instrumental variable (IV) models with instrument, treatment and outcome taking finitely many values. We derive a simple closed-form characterization of the set of joint distributions of potential outcomes that are compatible with a given observed data distribution in terms of a minimal set of inequalities. These inequalities unify several different IV models defined by versions of the independence and exclusion restriction assumptions. They lead to…

每个站点样本较少的多站点随机实验中治疗效应异质性的估计AI 解读

Multi-site randomized experiments, which are common in economics and medicine, can reveal how treatment effects vary across settings. However, differences between site-specific estimates reflect both treatment-effect heterogeneity and estimation noise. We build on established measurement-error corrections and develop new ones to study this heterogeneity in experiments with many sites and few units per site. In particular, our results can be used to estimate the variance and…

适用于随机阶梯楔形与观察性交错采用的广义双重差分估计AI 解读

Staggered treatment adoption arises in the evaluation of policy impact and implementation in many settings, including both randomized stepped-wedge trials and non-randomized quasi-experiments with panel data. In both settings, getting an interpretable, unbiased effect estimate requires careful consideration of the target estimand and possible treatment effect heterogeneities. This paper proposes a novel non-parametric approach to this estimation for either setting. By…

高维面板数据模型的稳健估计与推断AI 解读

This paper provides the relevant literature with a complete toolkit for conducting robust estimation and inference about the parameters of interest involved in a high-dimensional panel data framework. Specifically, (1) we allow for non-Gaussian, serially and cross-sectionally correlated and heteroskedastic error processes, (2) we develop an estimation method for high-dimensional long-run covariance matrix using a thresholded estimator, (3) we also allow for the number of…

随机实验分析入门与若干近期进展综述AI 解读

The past two decades have witnessed a surge of new research in the analysis of randomized experiments. The emergence of this literature may seem surprising given the widespread use and long history of experiments as the "gold standard" in program evaluation, but this body of work has revealed many subtle aspects of randomized experiments that may have been previously unappreciated. This article provides an overview of some of these topics, primarily focused on…

动态局部平均治疗效应AI 解读

We consider Dynamic Treatment Regimes (DTRs) with One Sided Noncompliance that arise in applications such as digital recommendations and adaptive medical trials. These are settings where decision makers encourage individuals to take treatments over time, but adapt encouragements based on previous encouragements, treatments, states, and outcomes. Importantly, individuals may not comply with encouragements based on unobserved confounders. For settings with binary treatments…

光遗传学的非参数因果推断：动态方案中的序贯偏离效应AI 解读

Optogenetics is a powerful neuroscience technique for studying how neural circuit manipulation affects behavior. Standard analysis conventions discard information and severely limit the scope of the causal questions that can be probed. To address this gap, we 1) draw connections to the causal inference literature on sequentially randomized experiments, 2) propose a non-parametric framework for analyzing "open-loop" (static regime) optogenetics behavioral experiments, 3)…

网络时间序列的欧氏镜像与一阶变点AI 解读

We describe a model for a network time series whose evolution is governed by an underlying stochastic process, known as the latent position process, in which network evolution can be represented in Euclidean space by a curve, called the Euclidean mirror. We define the notion of a first-order changepoint for a time series of networks, and construct a family of latent position process networks with underlying first-order changepoints. We prove that a spectral estimate of the…

将行为实验发现融入动态模型以设计社会变革干预AI 解读

Addressing global challenges often involves stimulating the large-scale adoption of new products or behaviors. Research traditions that focus on individual decision making suggest that achieving this objective requires identifying the drivers of individual discrete adoption choices. On the other hand, computational approaches rooted in complexity science focus on maximizing the propagation of a given product or behavior throughout social networks of interconnected adopters.…

多维匹配的半非参数模型：最优运输方法AI 解读

This paper develops a set of empirically tractable and flexible sieve estimators for semi-nonparametric multidimensional matching models with transferable utility, focusing on worker-job matching. We generalize the parametric quadratic-Gaussian framework employed by Bojilov and Galichon (2016) and Lindenlaub (2017), which relies on joint normality of observed characteristics. We allow unrestricted distributions of characteristics and show identification of the production…

自适应实验的选择性随机化推断AI 解读

Adaptive experiments use preliminary analyses of the data to inform further course of action and are commonly used in many disciplines including medical and social sciences. Because the null hypothesis and experimental design are data-dependent, it has long been recognized that statistical inference for adaptive experiments is not straightforward. Most existing methods only apply to specific adaptive designs and rely on strong assumptions. In this work, we propose selective…

用纵向修正处理政策研究连续、时变及复杂暴露AI 解读

This tutorial discusses methodology for causal inference using longitudinal modified treatment policies. This method facilitates the mathematical formalization, identification, and estimation of many novel parameters, and mathematically generalizes many commonly used parameters, such as the average treatment effect. Longitudinal modified treatment policies apply to a wide variety of exposures, including binary, multivariate, and continuous, and can accommodate time-varying…

SSRIs 对抑郁症的条目层面异质性治疗效应AI 解读

In analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs), Item Response Theory (IRT) models that allow for heterogeneity in the treatment effect at the item level merit consideration. These models for ``item-level heterogeneous treatment effects'' (IL-HTE) can provide more accurate statistical inference, allow researchers to better generalize their results, and resolve critical identification problems in the estimation of interaction…

用机器学习选择助推对象：学生助学金续申请实验中的因果与预测定向AI 解读

In many settings, interventions may be more effective for some individuals than others, so that targeting interventions may be beneficial. We analyze the value of targeting in the context of a large-scale field experiment with over 53,000 college students, where the goal was to use "nudges" to encourage students to renew their financial-aid applications before a non-binding deadline. We begin with baseline approaches to targeting. First, we target based on a causal forest…

多重处理下的两阶段最小二乘法AI 解读

We study what two-stage least squares (2SLS) identifies in models with multiple treatments under treatment effect heterogeneity. Two conditions are shown to be necessary and sufficient for the 2SLS to identify positively weighted sums of agent-specific effects of each treatment: average conditional monotonicity and no cross effects. Our identification analysis allows for any number of treatments, any number of continuous or discrete instruments, and the inclusion of…

因果 de Finetti：可交换数据中不变因果结构的识别AI 解读

Constraint-based causal discovery methods leverage conditional independence tests to infer causal relationships in a wide variety of applications. Just as the majority of machine learning methods, existing work focuses on studying $\textit{independent and identically distributed}$ data. However, it is known that even with infinite i.i.d.$\ $ data, constraint-based methods can only identify causal structures up to broad Markov equivalence classes, posing a fundamental…

使用目标最大似然估计因果效应时如何处理缺失数据AI 解读

Targeted Maximum Likelihood Estimation (TMLE) is increasingly used for doubly robust causal inference, but how missing data should be handled when using TMLE with data-adaptive approaches is unclear. Based on the Victorian Adolescent Health Cohort Study, we conducted a simulation study to evaluate eight missing data methods in this context: complete-case analysis, extended TMLE incorporating outcome-missingness model, missing covariate missing indicator method, five multiple…

用于异质性处理效应元推断的贝叶斯因果综合AI 解读

The estimation of heterogeneous treatment effects in the potential outcome setting is biased when there exists model misspecification or unobserved confounding. As these biases are unobservable, what model to use when remains a critical open question. In this paper, we propose a novel Bayesian methodology to mitigate misspecification and improve estimation via a synthesis of multiple causal estimates, which we call Bayesian causal synthesis. Our development is built upon…