每日简报

二元结果中的异质同伴效应AI 解读

I introduce heterogeneity into the analysis of peer effects arising from conformity by allowing peer-effect parameters to vary across agents' actions. Using a structural model based on a simultaneous network game with incomplete information, I derive conditions that guarantee the uniqueness of the equilibrium and the identification of heterogeneous peer-effect parameters. Applying the model to data on smoking and alcohol consumption among secondary school students, and…

宽严度设计：操作指南AI 解读

We develop a step-by-step guide to leniency (a.k.a. judge or examiner instrument) designs, drawing on recent econometric literatures. The unbiased jackknife instrumental variables estimator (UJIVE) is purpose-built for leveraging exogenous leniency variation, avoiding subtle biases even in the presence of many decision-makers or controls. We show how UJIVE can also be used to assess key assumptions underlying leniency designs, including quasi-random assignment and average…

线性结构方程模型中偏回归系数因果解释的统一图判据AI 解读

This paper provides a graph-based characterization of partial regression coefficients in linear structural equation models. First, we derive a generalized graphical criterion that unifies the d-separation, single-door, and back-door criteria. This criterion provides a generically necessary and sufficient condition under which a partial regression coefficient coincides with a linear causal effect that is not mediated by other explanatory variables. Second, we clarify the…

存在个体间干扰时的因果推断敏感性分析框架AI 解读

In many applications of causal inference, the treatment received by one unit may influence the outcome of another, a phenomenon referred to as interference. Although there are several frameworks for conducting causal inference in the presence of interference, practitioners often lack the data necessary to adjust for its effects. In this paper, we propose a weighting-based sensitivity analysis framework that can be used to assess the systematic bias arising from ignoring…

允许工具变量潜在无效的可能性理论回归AI 解读

Instrumental variable regression is a common approach for causal inference in the presence of unobserved confounding. However, identifying valid instruments is often difficult in practice. In this paper, we propose a novel method based on possibility theory that performs posterior inference on the treatment effect, conditional on a user-specified set of potential violations of the instrument exogeneity assumption. Our method can provide valid results even when only a single,…

核工具变量回归的一致推断AI 解读

Instrumental variable regression is a foundational tool for causal analysis across the social and biomedical sciences. Recent advances use kernel methods to estimate nonparametric causal relationships, with general data types, while retaining a simple closed-form expression. Empirical researchers ultimately need reliable inference on causal estimates; however, uniform confidence sets for the method remain unavailable. To fill this gap, we develop valid and sharp confidence…

连续处理随机政策变动下的双重差分AI 解读

Treatment effects of stochastic policy shifts quantify differences in outcomes across counterfactual scenarios with varying treatment distributions. Stochastic policy shifts may be of interest in settings where it is unrealistic or infeasible to deterministically manipulate treatments. In this paper, methods are developed to draw inference about stochastic policy effects under difference-in-differences (DiD) designs with a continuous treatment. The proposed causal estimand…

We propose an automatic, general-purpose framework for making discoveries from unstructured data (e.g., text data from open-ended surveys of economic beliefs). The framework leverages recent methods from the literature on AI interpretability to transform unstructured datasets into high-dimensional, structured datasets of interpretable concept measurements; specifies concept-level parameters and null hypotheses based on this transformed dataset; tests these hypotheses using…

比较观测与预测结果估计处理效应：有效推断条件与实践示例AI 解读

Prediction models developed before the introduction of a new treatment may be used to estimate treatment effects of newly introduced treatments. One approach, known as model-based clinical evaluation in radiotherapy, does this by comparing observed outcomes under a new treatment with predicted outcomes had these patients received the standard treatment. This article clarifies the relevant conditions needed for valid average treatment effect estimation using this approach,…

利用网络数据改进对不可观测因素的控制AI 解读

This paper develops a method to conduct causal inference in the presence of unobserved confounders by leveraging networks with homophily, a frequently observed tendency to form edges with similar nodes. I introduce a concept of asymptotic homophily, according to which individuals' selectivity scales with the size of the potential connection pool. The resulting network formation model accommodates common empirical features such as homophily, degree heterogeneity, sparsity,…

潜在分组可能无法分离时面板模型的稳健推断AI 解读

We develop robust inference methods for general linear hypotheses in linear panel data models with latent group structure in the coefficients. We employ a selective conditional inference approach based on the conditional distribution of coefficient estimates given the group structure estimated from the data. The resulting inference procedures remain valid even when group separation fails (i.e., when the distributional properties of the group-specific coefficients are not…

非线性面板数据模型的低秩估计AI 解读

This paper investigates nonlinear panel models with interactive fixed effects and introduces a general framework for parameter estimation under potentially nonconvex objective functions. We propose a computationally feasible two-step estimation procedure. In the first step, nuclear-norm regularization (NNR) is used to obtain preliminary estimators of the coefficients of interest, factors, and factor loadings. The second step involves an iterative procedure for post-NNR…

面板数据中所选群组的条件选择后推断AI 解读

We consider the problem of testing for differences in group-specific slopes between the selected groups in panel data identified via k-means clustering. In this setting, the classical Wald-type test statistic is problematic because it produces an extremely inflated type I error probability. The underlying reason is that the same dataset is used to identify the group structure and construct the test statistic, simultaneously. This creates dependence between the selection and…

二元结局下 Fisher 尖锐零假设的差分隐私检验AI 解读

Across many disciplines, causal inference often relies on randomized experiments with binary outcomes. In such experiments, often analysts are interested in testing Fisher's sharp null hypothesis, i.e., the treatment has zero effect on the outcome for every study subject. Sometimes the outcomes are sensitive and must be kept confidential, for example, when they comprise physical or mental health measurements. Releasing test statistics or p-values computed with the…

交叉设计的系统分析：因果效应、有效估计与稳健推断AI 解读

Crossover designs randomly assign each unit to receive a sequence of treatments. By comparing outcomes within the same unit, these designs can effectively eliminate between-unit variation and facilitate the identification of both instantaneous effects of current treatments and carryover effects from past treatments. They are widely used in traditional biomedical studies and are increasingly adopted in modern digital platforms. However, standard analyses of crossover designs…

整合随机试验、真实世界数据、人工智能与统计学：下一代证据综合AI 解读

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs)have been the cornerstone of clinical evidence; however, their cost, duration, and restrictive eligibility criteria limit power and external validity. Studies using real-world data (RWD), historically considered less reliable for establishing causality, are now recognized as an important source of real-world evidence (RWE). In parallel, artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) are increasingly used throughout the drug…

权重不确定性下的合成控制：稳健识别与统计推断AI 解读

The synthetic control method estimates causal effects by comparing a treated unit with weighted controls matched on its pre-treatment trajectory. However, validity can be compromised when highly correlated controls leave the synthetic weights weakly determined or when treated-control relationships shift after treatment. We propose a new estimand, the weight-robust treatment effect, defined as the optimizer of a worst-case optimization problem over an uncertainty class of…

整群随机试验的校准贝叶斯分析AI 解读

In cluster-randomized trials (CRTs), entire clusters of individuals are randomized to treatment, and outcomes within a cluster are typically correlated. While frequentist approaches are standard practice for CRT analysis, Bayesian methods have emerged as a strong alternative. Previous work has investigated the use of Bayesian hierarchical models for continuous, binary, and count outcomes in CRTs, but these approaches focus on model-based treatment effect coefficients as the…

异质场所之间分布处理效应的可迁移性AI 解读

We study distributional transportability of treatment effects in a ``cross-site, one-armed target" design, where both treated and control units are observed in a source site, but only control units are observed in a target site. Our object of interest is not estimating the average treatment effect, but recovering the full treated distribution in the target site using transfer knowledge from the source site, while allowing cross-site heterogeneity in measurement systems,…

识别设计AI 解读

This paper introduces a model of identification design in which the decision maker observes the population distribution of signals generated by an information structure and ranks actions by their worst-case payoff over the admissible state distributions consistent with those signals. The environment is manipulable if every action is implementable under every admissible distribution of the state variable, and strongly so if this is achievable via almost fully informative…

分层因果结构学习AI 解读

Traditional statistical approaches primarily model associations between variables, however many scientific and practical questions require causal methods instead. These methods typically rely on assumptions about an underlying structure and are often represented by a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG). While causal structures can be learned for single-level data, hierarchical or multi-level settings, where units (e.g., plants, students or patients) are nested within groups (e.g.,…

两阶段抽样下加权处理效应的有效估计AI 解读

Two-phase sampling offers a practical way to collect costly confounders only in a subsample while retaining inexpensive information for a larger cohort. In observational causal studies, however, phase-2 selection can distort estimation of population causal effects if the sampling mechanism is ignored, and available phase-1 information may also be exploited to improve efficiency. Yet efficiency theory for causal estimands under such designs remains limited, particularly…

方向性分布偏移下的实验地点选择AI 解读

Multi-site studies are widely used across the social sciences, education, and medicine to learn the effects of interventions across heterogeneous populations. But deployment populations, on which a given intervention is implemented, may differ systematically from the experimental population on which the intervention is evaluated. I propose a method for selecting sites with minimax guarantees against directional distribution shifts, which allows the researcher to guard…

小样本倾向得分分析的方差与置信区间：自助法和渐近方法比较AI 解读

Propensity score (PS) methods are widely used to estimate treatment effects in non-randomized studies. Variance is typically estimated using sandwich or bootstrap methods, which can either treat the PS as estimated or fixed. The latter is thought to be conservative. Comparisons between the sandwich and bootstrap estimators have been compared in moderate to large sample sizes, favoring the bootstrap estimator. With the growing interest in treatments for rare disease and…