每日简报

随机对照试验中死亡截断结局：幸存者平均因果效应的模拟研究AI 解读

Continuous outcome measurements truncated by death present a challenge for the estimation of unbiased treatment effects in randomized controlled trials (RCTs). One way to deal with such situations is to estimate the survivor average causal effect (SACE), but this requires making non-testable assumptions. Motivated by an ongoing RCT in very preterm infants with intraventricular hemorrhage, we performed a simulation study to compare a SACE estimator with complete case analysis…

通过倾向得分校准改善双重／去偏机器学习的平均处理效应估计AI 解读

In the last decade, machine learning techniques have gained popularity for estimating causal effects. One machine learning approach that can be used for estimating an average treatment effect is Double/debiased machine learning (DML) (Chernozhukov et al., 2018). This approach uses a double-robust score function that relies on the prediction of nuisance functions, such as the propensity score, which is the probability of treatment assignment conditional on covariates.…

利用加权能量距离估计修正处理政策效应AI 解读

The causal effects of continuous treatments are often characterized through the average dose response function, which is challenging to estimate from observational data due to confounding and positivity violations. Modified treatment policies (MTPs) are an alternative approach that aim to assess the effect of a modification to observed treatment values and work under relaxed assumptions. Estimators for MTPs generally focus on estimating the conditional density of treatment…

不依赖正值性条件的剂量反应曲线非参数推断AI 解读

Existing statistical methods in causal inference often assume the positivity condition, where every individual has some chance of receiving any treatment level regardless of covariates. This assumption could be violated in observational studies with continuous treatments. In this paper, we develop identification and estimation theories for causal effects with continuous treatments (i.e., dose-response curves) without relying on the positivity condition. Our approach…

加权因果分解的校准敏感性分析AI 解读

Disparities in health or well-being experienced by minority groups can be difficult to study using the traditional exposure-outcome paradigm in causal inference, since potential outcomes in variables such as race or sexual minority status are challenging to interpret. Causal decomposition analysis addresses this gap by positing causal effects on disparities under interventions to other, intervenable exposures that may play a mediating role in the disparity. While invoking…

存在多个事件的双重差分AI 解读

This paper studies staggered Difference-in-Differences (DiD) design when there is a second event confounding the target event. When the events are correlated, the treatment and the control group are unevenly exposed to the effects of the second event, causing an omitted event bias. To address this bias, I propose a two-stage DiD design. In the first stage, I estimate the combined effects of both treatments using a control group that is neither treated nor confounded. In the…

双臂最优臂识别中简单遗憾的极小极大最优性AI 解读

This study investigates an asymptotically minimax optimal algorithm in the two-armed fixed-budget best-arm identification (BAI) problem. Given two treatment arms, the objective is to identify the arm with the highest expected outcome through an adaptive experiment. We focus on the Neyman allocation, where treatment arms are allocated following the ratio of their outcome standard deviations. Our primary contribution is to prove the minimax optimality of the Neyman allocation…

利用负对照识别无效工具变量下的因果效应AI 解读

Many proposals for the identification of causal effects require an instrumental variable that satisfies strong, untestable unconfoundedness and exclusion restriction assumptions. In this paper, we show how one can potentially identify causal effects under violations of these assumptions by harnessing a negative control population or outcome. This strategy allows one to leverage sub-populations for whom the exposure is degenerate, and requires that the instrument-outcome…

保序倾向得分匹配AI 解读

We propose a one-to-many matching estimator of the average treatment effect based on propensity scores estimated by isotonic regression. This approach is predicated on the assumption of monotonicity in the propensity score function, a condition that can be justified in many economic applications. We show that the nature of the isotonic estimator can help us to fix many problems of existing matching methods, including efficiency, choice of the number of matches, choice of…

使用静态工具变量识别动态局部平均处理效应AI 解读

In many situations, researchers are interested in identifying dynamic effects of an irreversible treatment with a time-invariant binary instrumental variable (IV). For example, in evaluations of dynamic effects of training programs with a single lottery determining eligibility. A common approach in these situations is to report per-period IV estimates. Under a dynamic extension of standard IV assumptions, we show that such IV estimands identify a weighted sum of treatment…

用于反事实预测的合成分解AI 解读

Counterfactual predictions are challenging when the policy variable goes beyond its pre-policy support. However, in many cases, information about the policy of interest is available from different ("source") regions where a similar policy has already been implemented. In this paper, we propose a novel method of using such data from source regions to predict a new policy in a target region. Instead of relying on extrapolation of a structural relationship using a parametric…

关于回归不连续设计中双重稳健估计量的说明AI 解读

This note introduces a doubly robust (DR) estimator for regression discontinuity (RD) designs. RD designs provide a quasi-experimental framework for estimating treatment effects, where treatment assignment depends on whether a running variable surpasses a predefined cutoff. A common approach in RD estimation is the use of nonparametric regression methods, such as local linear regression. However, the validity of these methods still relies on the consistency of the…

使用主观有序结果识别因果效应AI 解读

Survey questions often ask respondents to select from ordered scales where the meanings of the categories are subjective, leaving each individual free to apply their own definitions in answering. This paper studies the use of these responses as an outcome variable in causal inference, accounting for variation in interpretation of the categories across individuals. I find that when a continuous treatment variable is statistically independent of both i) potential outcomes; and…

存在干扰时的双重差分AI 解读

In many scenarios, such as the evaluation of place-based policies, potential outcomes are not only dependent upon the unit's own treatment but also its neighbors' treatment. Despite this, "difference-in-differences" (DID) type estimators typically ignore such interference among neighbors. I show in this paper that the canonical DID estimators generally fail to identify interesting causal effects in the presence of neighborhood interference. To incorporate interference…

算法化的句法因果识别AI 解读

Causal identification in causal Bayes nets (CBNs) is an important tool in causal inference allowing the derivation of interventional distributions from observational distributions where this is possible in principle. However, most existing formulations of causal identification using techniques such as d-separation and do-calculus are expressed within the mathematical language of classical probability theory on CBNs. However, there are many causal settings where probability…

分布滞后模型的贝叶斯变量选择：二元分位数与计数回归AI 解读

Distributed Lag Models (DLMs) and similar regression approaches such as MIDAS have been used for many decades in econometrics and more recently to investigate how poor air quality adversely affects human health. In this paper we describe how to expand the utility of these models for Bayesian inference by leveraging latent variables. In particular we explain how to perform binary regression to better handle imbalanced data, how to incorporate negative binomial regression, and…

连续主分层的半参数局部化分析AI 解读

Principal stratification is essential for revealing causal mechanisms involving post-treatment intermediate variables, in real-world applications like surrogate marker evaluation. Principal stratification analysis with continuous intermediate variables is increasingly common but challenging due to the infinite principal strata and the nonidentifiability and nonregularity of principal causal effects. Inspired by recent research, we resolve these challenges by first using a…

动态处理效应：模型误设下的高维推断AI 解读

Estimating dynamic treatment effects is crucial across various disciplines, providing insights into the time-dependent causal impact of interventions. However, this estimation poses challenges due to time-varying confounding, leading to potentially biased estimates. Furthermore, accurately specifying the growing number of treatment assignments and outcome models with multiple exposures appears increasingly challenging to accomplish. Double robustness, which permits model…

未观测混杂下事件时间数据的二元变换模型：重访伊利诺伊再就业奖励实验AI 解读

Motivated by empirical studies investigating treatment effects in survival analysis, we propose a bivariate transformation model to quantify the impact of a binary treatment on a time-to-event outcome. The model equations are connected through a bivariate Gaussian distribution, with the dependence parameter capturing unobserved confounding, and are specified as functions of additive predictors to flexibly account for the impacts of observed confounders. Moreover, the…

链式双重差分AI 解读

This paper studies the identification, estimation, and inference of long-term (binary) treatment effect parameters when balanced panel data is not available, or consists of only a subset of the available data. We develop a new estimator: the chained difference-in-differences, which leverages the overlapping structure of many unbalanced panel data sets. This approach consists in aggregating a collection of short-term treatment effects estimated on multiple incomplete panels.…

半参数回归中双重机器学习的双重稳健推断AI 解读

Due to concerns about parametric model misspecification, there is interest in using machine learning to adjust for confounding when evaluating the causal effect of an exposure on an outcome. Unfortunately, exposure effect estimators that rely on machine learning predictions are generally subject to so-called plug-in bias, which can render naive $p$-values and confidence intervals invalid. Progress has been made via proposals like targeted minimum loss estimation and more…

以集中指数为目标的健康不平等因果推断AI 解读

A concentration index, a standardized covariance between a health variable and relative income ranks, is often used to quantify income-related health inequalities. There is a lack of formal approach to study the effect of an exposure, e.g., education, on such measures of inequality. In this paper we contribute by filling this gap and developing the necessary theory and method. Thus, we define a counterfactual concentration index for different levels of an exposure. We give…