Distal Causal Excursion Effects: Modeling Long-Term Effects of Time-Varying Treatments in Micro-Randomized Trials
远期因果偏离效应:微随机试验中时变处理的长期效应建模
Micro-randomized trials (MRTs) play a crucial role in optimizing digital interventions. In an MRT, each participant is sequentially randomized among treatment options hundreds of times. While the interventions tested in MRTs target short-term behavioral responses (proximal outcomes), their ultimate goal is to drive long-term behavior change (distal outcomes). However, existing causal inference methods, such as the causal excursion effect, are limited to proximal outcomes,…