每日简报

利用高维经验似然进行平均处理效应的多重稳健推断AI 解读

In this paper, we develop a multiply robust inference procedure of the average treatment effect (ATE) for data with high-dimensional covariates. We consider the case where it is difficult to correctly specify a single parametric model for the propensity scores (PS). For example, the target population is formed from heterogeneous sources with different treatment assignment mechanisms. We propose a novel high-dimensional empirical likelihood weighting method under soft…

利用外部对照改进处理效应估计的自适应数据借用AI 解读

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) often exhibit limited inferential efficiency in estimating treatment effects due to small sample sizes. In recent years, the combination of external controls has gained increasing attention as a means of improving the efficiency of RCTs. However, external controls are not always comparable to RCTs, and direct borrowing without careful evaluation can introduce substantial bias and reduce the efficiency of treatment effect estimation. In…

贝叶斯神经网络辅助多处理混合治愈生存模型：儿科肿瘤应用AI 解读

Estimating covariate-conditional treatment effects in multi-arm oncology studies is complicated when treatment arms have common distributional features and a non-negligible fraction of patients achieve long-term remission. We propose a joint mixture cure model with covariate-dependent mixtures of log-normal kernels with treatment-specific inclusions. Both linear and neural-network-assisted non-linear covariate links are proposed. Specifically, the susceptible survival…

从加权视角理解空间回归：超级基金场地修复的观察性研究AI 解读

A key challenge in environmental health research is unmeasured spatial confounding, driven by unobserved spatially structured variables that influence both treatment and outcome. A common approach is to fit a spatial regression that models the outcome as a linear function of treatment and covariates, with a spatially structured error term to account for unmeasured spatial confounding. However, it remains unclear to what extent spatial regression actually accounts for such…

平行趋势假设下复杂处理设计的处理效应估计AI 解读

This paper considers the identification of dynamic treatment effects with panel data, in complex designs where the treatment may not be binary and may not be absorbing. We first show that under no-anticipation and parallel-trends assumptions, we can identify event-study effects comparing outcomes under the actual treatment path and under the status-quo path where all units would have kept their period-one treatment throughout the panel. Those effects can be helpful to…

未观测混杂下的可微循环因果发现AI 解读

Understanding causal relationships between variables is fundamental across scientific disciplines. Most causal discovery algorithms rely on two key assumptions: (i) all variables are observed, and (ii) the underlying causal graph is acyclic. While these assumptions simplify theoretical analysis, they are often violated in real-world systems, such as biological networks. Existing methods that account for confounders either assume linearity or struggle with scalability. To…

面板因果模型中未测混杂的识别诊断：两阶段 LM–Wald 方法AI 解读

Panel data are widely used in political science to draw causal inferences. However, these models often rely on the strong and untested assumption of sequential ignorability--that no unmeasured variables influence both the independent and outcome variables across time. Grounded in psychometric literature on latent variable modeling, this paper introduces the Two-Stage LM-Wald (2SLW) approach, a diagnostic tool that extends the Lagrange Multiplier (LM) and Wald tests to detect…

动态潜在类别结构方程模型：密集纵向数据建模实操教程AI 解读

In this tutorial, we provide a hands-on guideline on how to implement complex Dynamic Latent Class Structural Equation Models (DLCSEM) in the Bayesian software JAGS. We provide building blocks starting with simple Confirmatory Factor and Time Series analysis, and then extend these blocks to Multilevel Models and Dynamic Structural Equation Models (DSEM). Subsequently, we introduce Hidden Markov Switching Models (HMSM) and demonstrate their integration with DSEM to yield…

用贝叶斯层级可调随机分区识别自适应富集试验中的治疗效应异质性AI 解读

Treatment effect heterogeneity refers to the systematic variation in treatment effects across subgroups. There is an increasing need for clinical trials that aim to investigate treatment effect heterogeneity and estimate subgroup-specific responses. While several statistical methods have been proposed to address this problem, existing partitioning-based methods often depend on auxiliary analysis, overlook model uncertainty, or impose inflexible borrowing strength. We propose…

部分函数型动态后门扩散因果模型AI 解读

Causal inference in spatio-temporal settings is critically hindered by unmeasured confounders with complex spatio-temporal dynamics and the prevalence of multi-resolution data. While diffusion models present a promising avenue for estimating structural causal models, existing approaches are limited by assumptions of causal sufficiency or static confounding, failing to capture the region-specific, temporally dependent nature of real-world latent variables or to directly…

在目标试验中嵌入目标研究：评估干预对群体差距的影响AI 解读

We present a novel framework (TS+TT) to nest a Target Study (TS) within a Target Trial (TT) for evaluating the effects of interventions on disparities. The TS component grounds the measurement of disparity in ethical assumptions, based on the concept of allowability, and anchors it to an explicit population within calendar time. It specifies an enrollment plan of stratified sampling of eligible persons to yield a sample where social groups are distributionally similar on…

纵向修正治疗政策对健康结局变化率的效应估计AI 解读

Longitudinal data often contains outcomes measured at multiple visits, and scientific interest may lie in quantifying the effect of an intervention on an outcome's rate of change. For example, one may wish to study the progression (or trajectory) of a disease over time under different hypothetical interventions. We extend the longitudinal modified treatment policy (LMTP) methodology to estimate effects of complex, exposure-dependent interventions on rates of change in an…

综合证据：利用在线实验数据汇集选择处理方案AI 解读

Randomized experiments are the gold standard for causal inference but face significant challenges in business applications, including limited traffic allocation, the need for heterogeneous treatment effect estimation, and the complexity of managing overlapping experiments. These factors lead to high variability in treatment effect estimates, making data-driven policy roll out difficult. To address these issues, we introduce the data pooling treatment roll-out (DPTR)…

通过剖面化迁移学习消除混杂AI 解读

Unmeasured confounders are a major source of bias in regression-based effect estimation and causal inference. In this paper, we propose a new profiled transfer learning framework, ProTrans, to address confounding effects in the target dataset, when additional source datasets with similar confounding structures are available. We introduce the concept of profiled residuals to characterize the shared confounding patterns between source and target datasets. By incorporating…

计数型中间变量的主分层与 BART：生育对女性就业的效应AI 解读

Estimating the causal effect of fertility on women's employment is challenging because fertility and labour-market decisions are jointly determined. Instrumental-variable strategies are widely used, but credible instruments are rare and their validity often depends on covariates. Two-stage least squares, the dominant implementation, does not flexibly accommodate covariate-dependent instrument validity and is poorly suited to count-valued treatment and effect heterogeneity…

加权最小二乘估计量对遗漏变量的敏感性AI 解读

We introduce tools for assessing the sensitivity, to unobserved confounding, of a common estimator of causal effects that employs weights: the weighted linear regression of the outcome on the treatment and observed covariates. This estimator's bias is a function of two intuitive weighted partial $R^2$ values: (i) the proportion of weighted variance in the treatment that unobserved confounding explains given the covariates and (ii) the proportion of weighted variance in the…

高维混杂下纵向数据的异质性分位数处理效应估计（第二版）AI 解读

Causal inference plays a fundamental role in various real-world applications. However, in the motivating non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) study, it is challenging to estimate the treatment effect of chemotherapy on circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). First, the heterogeneous treatment effects vary across patient subgroups defined by baseline characteristics. Second, there exists a broad set of demographic, clinical and molecular variables act as potential confounders. Third,…

医学研究中的回归不连续设计AI 解读

This article provides an introduction to the Regression Discontinuity (RD) design, and its application to empirical research in the medical sciences. While the main focus of this article is on causal interpretation, key concepts of estimation and inference are also briefly mentioned. A running medical empirical example is provided.

固定时间维度下异质性面板模型的双向均值组估计AI 解读

We consider a correlated random coefficient panel data model with two-way fixed effects and interactive fixed effects in a fixed T framework. We propose a two-way mean group (TW-MG) estimator for the expected value of the slope coefficient and propose a leave-one-out jackknife method for valid inference. We also consider a pooled estimator and provide a Hausman-type test for poolability. Simulations demonstrate the excellent performance of our estimators and inference…

统计学的挑战：因果关系与因果推断的十二项挑战AI 解读

Causality and causal inference have emerged as core research areas at the interface of modern statistics and domains including biomedical sciences, social sciences, computer science, and beyond. The field's inherently interdisciplinary nature -- particularly the central role of incorporating domain knowledge -- creates a rich and varied set of statistical challenges. Much progress has been made, especially in the last three decades, but there remain many open questions. Our…

三重稳健面板估计量AI 解读

This paper studies estimation of causal effects in a panel data setting. We introduce a new estimator, the Triply RObust Panel (TROP) estimator, that combines (i) a flexible model for the potential outcomes based on a low-rank factor structure on top of a two-way-fixed effect specification, with (ii) unit weights intended to upweight units similar to the treated units and (iii) time weights intended to upweight time periods close to the treated time periods. We study the…

多变量孟德尔随机化的一种更稳健方法AI 解读

Multivariable Mendelian randomization (MVMR) uses genetic variants as instrumental variables to infer the direct effects of multiple exposures on an outcome. However, unlike univariable Mendelian randomization, MVMR often faces greater challenges with many weak instruments, which can lead to bias not necessarily toward zero and inflation of type I errors. In this work, we introduce a new asymptotic regime that allows exposures to have varying degrees of instrument strength,…

评估时变调节作用的因果偏离效应元学习方法AI 解读

Advances in wearable technologies and health interventions delivered by smartphones have greatly increased the accessibility of mobile health (mHealth) interventions. Micro-randomized trials (MRTs) are designed to assess the effectiveness of the mHealth intervention and introduce a novel class of causal estimands called "causal excursion effects." These estimands enable the evaluation of how intervention effects change over time and are influenced by individual…

高维混杂下的因果机器学习方法与交叉拟合AI 解读

Observational epidemiological studies commonly seek to estimate the causal effect of an exposure on an outcome. Adjustment for potential confounding bias in modern studies is challenging due to the presence of high-dimensional confounding, which occurs when there are many confounders relative to sample size or complex relationships between continuous confounders and exposure and outcome. Doubly robust methods such as Augmented Inverse Probability Weighting (AIPW) and…