每日简报

弱信号与重尾：学习理论与极值分析的结合AI 解读

The masses of data now available have opened up the prospect of discovering weak signals using machine-learning algorithms, with a view to predictive or interpretation tasks. As this survey of recent results attempts to show, bringing multivariate extreme value theory and statistical learning theory together in a common, nonparametric and nonasymptotic framework makes it possible to design and analyze new methods for exploiting the scarce information located in distribution…

从联合数据中学习可解释因子随机策略的极小极大方法及不确定性量化AI 解读

We study offline policy optimization over exponentially large factorial action spaces from randomized preference data, showing how conjoint experiments can estimate interpretable stochastic policies with asymptotically valid uncertainty under regularity conditions. Conjoint analyses typically report Average Marginal Component Effects (AMCEs) by averaging over opponent attributes and thus ignore strategic interdependence. We instead learn stochastic interventions --…

分类处理的微随机试验：因果效应估计与样本量计算AI 解读

Micro-randomized trials (MRTs) are widely used to assess the marginal and moderated effect of mobile health (mHealth) treatments delivered via mobile devices. In many applications, the mHealth treatments are categorical with multiple levels such as different types of message contents, but existing analysis and sample size calculation methods for MRTs only focus on binary treatment options (i.e., prompt vs. no prompt). We extended the causal excursion effect definition and…

映射至目标试验的干预效应：高维中介分析中的因果机器学习AI 解读

Causal mediation analysis examines causal pathways linking exposures to disease. The estimation of interventional effects, which are mediation estimands that overcome certain identifiability problems of natural effects, has been advanced through causal machine learning methods, particularly for high-dimensional mediators. Recently, it has been proposed interventional effects can be defined in each study by mapping to a target trial assessing specific hypothetical mediator…

利用再中心化工具变量估计需求AI 解读

We develop a new approach to estimating flexible demand models with exogenous supply-side shocks. Our approach avoids conventional assumptions of exogenous product characteristics, putting no restrictions on product entry, despite using instrumental variables that incorporate characteristic variation. The proposed instruments are model-predicted responses of endogenous variables to the exogenous shocks, recentered to avoid bias from endogenous characteristics. We illustrate…

增长网络的因果模型AI 解读

Real-world networks grow over time; statistical models based on node exchangeability are not appropriate. Instead of constraining the structure of the \textit{distribution} of edges, we propose that the relevant symmetries refer to the \textit{causal structure} between them. We first enumerate the 96 causal directed acyclic graph (DAG) models over pairs of nodes (dyad variables) in a growing network with finite ancestral sets that are invariant to node deletion. We then…

MMCE：多重因果效应的深度单调建模框架AI 解读

When we plan to use money as an incentive to change the behavior of a person (such as making riders to deliver more orders or making consumers to buy more items), the common approach of this problem is to adopt a two-stage framework in order to maximize ROI under cost constraints. In the first stage, the individual price response curve is obtained. In the second stage, business goals and resource constraints are formally expressed and modeled as an optimization problem. The…

依赖删失下服从者因果风险比的估计AI 解读

In this work, we are interested in studying the causal effect of an endogenous binary treatment on a dependently censored duration outcome. By dependent censoring, it is meant that the duration time ($T$) and right censoring time ($C$) are not statistically independent of each other, even after conditioning on the measured covariates. The endogeneity issue is handled by making use of a binary instrumental variable for the treatment. To deal with the dependent censoring…

利用扩散模型生成数据增强因果效应估计AI 解读

Estimating causal effects from observational data is inherently challenging due to the lack of observable counterfactual outcomes and even the presence of unmeasured confounding. Traditional methods often rely on restrictive, untestable assumptions or necessitate valid instrumental variables, significantly limiting their applicability and robustness. In this paper, we introduce Augmented Causal Effect Estimation (ACEE), an innovative approach that utilizes synthetic data…

分布值结局的断点回归设计AI 解读

This article introduces Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) with Distribution-Valued Outcomes (R3D), extending the standard RDD framework to settings where the outcome is a distribution rather than a scalar. Such settings arise when treatment is assigned at a higher level of aggregation than the outcome-for example, when a subsidy is allocated based on a firm-level revenue cutoff while the outcome of interest is the distribution of employee wages within the firm. Since…

洛伦兹曲线时间序列预测：单因素函数型方差分析AI 解读

The Lorenz curve is a fundamental tool for analysing income and wealth distribution and inequality at national and regional levels. We utilise a one-way functional analysis of variance to decompose a time series of Lorenz curves and develop a method for producing one-step-ahead point and interval forecasts. The one-way functional analysis of variance is easily interpretable by decomposing an array into a functional grand effect, a functional row effect and residual…

右删失生存数据中个体化处理效应的不确定性：BART 与因果生存森林比较AI 解读

Estimation of individualized treatment effects (ITE), also known as conditional average treatment effects (CATE), is an active area of methodology development. However, much less attention has been paid to the quantification of uncertainty of ITE/CATE estimates in right-censored survival data. Here we undertake an extensive simulation study to examine the coverage of interval estimates from two popular estimation algorithms, Bayesian additive regression trees (BART) and…

共享状态干扰下因果推断的双重机器学习AI 解读

Researchers and practitioners often wish to measure treatment effects in settings where units interact via markets and recommendation systems. In these settings, units are affected by certain shared states, like prices, algorithmic recommendations or social signals. We formalize this structure, calling it shared-state interference, and argue that our formulation captures many relevant applied settings. Our key modeling assumption is that individuals' potential outcomes are…

利用非交叉分位数网络进行深度分布学习AI 解读

In this paper, we introduce a non-crossing quantile (NQ) network for conditional distribution learning. By leveraging non-negative activation functions, the NQ network ensures that the learned distributions remain monotonic, effectively addressing the issue of quantile crossing. Furthermore, the NQ network-based deep distributional learning framework is highly adaptable, applicable to a wide range of applications, from classical non-parametric quantile regression to more…

基于临床试验主要结局检验结果的次要结局条件推断AI 解读

In clinical trials, inferences on clinical outcomes are often made conditional on specific selective processes. For instance, only when a treatment demonstrates a significant effect on the primary outcome, further analysis is conducted to investigate its efficacy on selected secondary outcomes. Similarly, inferences may also depend on whether a trial is terminated early at interim stage. While conventional approaches primarily aim to control the family-wise error rate…

用于因果推断的两阶段可解释匹配框架AI 解读

Matching in causal inference from observational data aims to construct treatment and control groups with similar distributions of covariates, thereby reducing confounding and ensuring an unbiased estimation of treatment effects. This matched sample closely mimics a randomized controlled trial (RCT), thus improving the quality of causal estimates. We introduce a novel Two-stage Interpretable Matching (TIM) framework for transparent and interpretable covariate matching. In the…

容许无效工具变量的半参数因果发现与推断AI 解读

Learning causal relationships among a set of variables, as encoded by a directed acyclic graph, from observational data is complicated by the presence of unobserved confounders. Instrumental variables (IVs) are a popular remedy for this issue, but most existing methods either assume the validity of all IVs or postulate a specific form of relationship, such as a linear model, between the primary variables and the IVs. To overcome these limitations, we introduce a partially…

检测处理效应异质性时可忽略组内相关系数的整群随机试验AI 解读

Accurately estimating the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) is crucial for adequately powering clustered randomized trials (CRTs). Challenges arise due to limited prior data on the specific outcome within the target population, making accurate ICC estimation difficult. Furthermore, ICC can vary significantly across studies, even for the same outcome, influenced by factors like study design, participant characteristics, and the specific intervention. Power…

动态离散与连续选择模型：识别与条件选择概率估计AI 解读

This paper develops a general framework for dynamic models in which individuals simultaneously make both discrete and continuous choices. The framework incorporates a wide range of unobserved heterogeneity. I show that such models are nonparametrically identified. Based on constructive identification arguments, I build a novel two-step estimation method in the lineage of Hotz and Miller (1993) and Arcidiacono and Miller (2011) but extended to simultaneous discrete-continuous…

无需匹配的目标试验模拟：利用观察数据更高效评估疫苗有效性AI 解读

Real-world vaccine effectiveness has increasingly been studied using matching-based approaches, particularly in observational cohort studies following the target trial emulation framework. Although matching is appealing in its simplicity, it suffers important limitations in terms of clarity of the target estimand and the efficiency or precision with which is it estimated. Scientifically justified causal estimands of vaccine effectiveness may be difficult to define owing to…

分数解释型异质处理效应模型中的平均处理效应估计与推断AI 解读

In many practical situations, randomly assigning treatments to subjects is uncommon due to feasibility constraints. For example, economic aid programs and merit-based scholarships are often restricted to those meeting specific income or exam score thresholds. In these scenarios, traditional approaches to estimating treatment effects typically focus solely on observations near the cutoff point, thereby excluding a significant portion of the sample and potentially leading to…

利用工具变量识别和估计因果同伴效应AI 解读

In social science researches, causal inference regarding peer effects often faces significant challenges due to homophily bias and contextual confounding. For example, unmeasured health conditions (e.g., influenza) and psychological states (e.g., happiness, loneliness) can spread among closely connected individuals, such as couples or siblings. To address these issues, we define four effect estimands for dyadic data to characterize direct effects and spillover effects. We…

连续生物标志物亚组效应的选择性随机化推断AI 解读

Randomization tests are a popular method for testing causal effects in clinical trials with finite-sample validity. In the presence of heterogeneous treatment effects, it is often of interest to select a subgroup that benefits from the treatment, frequently by choosing a cutoff for a continuous biomarker. However, selecting the cutoff and testing the effect on the same data may fail to control the type I error. To address this, we propose using "self-contained" methods for…

时间序列模型中的因果识别AI 解读

In this paper, we analyze the applicability of the Causal Identification algorithm to causal time series graphs with latent confounders. Since these graphs extend over infinitely many time steps, deciding whether causal effects across arbitrary time intervals are identifiable appears to require computation on graph segments of unbounded size. Even for deciding the identifiability of intervention effects on variables that are close in time, no bound is known on how many time…