每日简报

从危机中学习：具有可观测适应机制的时变参数 VARAI 解读

We revisit macroeconomic time-varying parameter vector autoregressions (TVP-VARs), whose persistent coefficients may adapt too slowly to large, abrupt shifts such as those during major crises. We explore the performance of an adaptively-varying parameter (AVP) VAR that incorporates deterministic adjustments driven by observable exogenous variables, replacing latent state innovations with linear combinations of macroeconomic and financial indicators. This reformulation…

利用先验拟合网络实现摊销式因果发现AI 解读

In recent years, differentiable penalized likelihood methods have gained popularity, optimizing the causal structure by maximizing its likelihood with respect to the data. However, recent research has shown that errors in likelihood estimation, even on relatively large sample sizes, disallow the discovery of proper structures. We propose a new approach to amortized causal discovery that addresses the limitations of likelihood estimator accuracy. Our method leverages…

刻画多元极值非对称依赖的简约因子模型AI 解读

Modelling multivariate extreme events is essential when extrapolating beyond the range of observed data. Parametric models that are suitable for real-world extremes must be flexible -- particularly in their ability to capture asymmetric dependence structures -- while also remaining parsimonious for interpretability and computationally scalable in high dimensions. Although many models have been proposed, it is rare for any single construction to satisfy all of these…

协变量调整之外，再随机化是否仍有帮助？理论与实践指南AI 解读

Rerandomization is a modern experimental design technique that repeatedly randomizes treatment assignments until covariates are deemed balanced between treatment groups. This enhances the precision and coherence of causal effect estimators, mitigates false discoveries from p-hacking, and increases statistical power. Recent work suggests that balancing covariates via rerandomization does not alter the asymptotic precision of covariate-adjusted estimators, thereby making it…

面向稳健因果效应估计的文本信息筛选AI 解读

Recent advances in natural language processing have enabled the increasing use of text data in causal inference, particularly for adjusting confounding factors in treatment effect estimation. Although high-dimensional text can encode rich contextual information, it also poses unique challenges for causal identification and estimation. In particular, the positivity assumption, which requires sufficient treatment overlap across confounder values, is often violated at the…

贝叶斯之道：不确定性、学习与统计推理AI 解读

This paper offers a comprehensive introduction to Bayesian inference, combining historical context, theoretical foundations, and core analytical examples. Beginning with Bayes' theorem and the philosophical distinctions between Bayesian and frequentist approaches, we develop the inferential framework for estimation, interval construction, hypothesis testing, and prediction. Through canonical models, we illustrate how prior information and observed data are formally…

时间序列交叉验证有限样本偏差札记AI 解读

It is well known that model selection via cross validation can be biased for time series models. However, many researchers have argued that this bias does not apply when using cross-validation with vector autoregressions (VAR) or with time series models whose errors follow a martingale-like structure. I show that even under these circumstances, performing cross-validation on time series data will still generate bias in general.

缺失数据下半参数因子模型的估计AI 解读

We study semiparametric factor models in high-dimensional panels where the factor loadings consist of a nonparametric component explained by observed covariates and an idiosyncratic component capturing unobserved heterogeneity. A key challenge in empirical applications is the presence of missing observations, which can distort both factor recovery and loading estimation. To address this issue, we develop a projected principal component analysis (PPCA) procedure that…

银行合并的市场反应与信息溢出：日本银行业的多方法分析AI 解读

Major bank mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transform the financial market structure, but their valuation and spillover effects remain open to question. This study examines the market reaction to two M&A events: the 2005 creation of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group following the Financial Big Bang in Japan, and the 2018 merger involving Resona Holdings after the global financial crisis. The multi-method analysis in this research combines several distinct methods to explore these…

SLOACI：利用替代结局的在线自适应因果推断AI 解读

Adaptive experimental designs have gained increasing attention across a range of domains. In this paper, we propose a new methodological framework, surrogate-leveraged online adaptive causal inference (SLOACI), which integrates predictive surrogate outcomes into adaptive designs to enhance efficiency. For downstream analysis, we construct the adaptive augmented inverse probability weighting estimator for the average treatment effect using collected data. Our procedure…

求职持续时间依赖的估计：组内估计的持续时间偏差AI 解读

Many recent studies use individual longitudinal data to analyze job search behaviors. Such data allow the use of fixed-effects models, which supposedly address the issue of dynamic selection and make it possible to identify the structural effect of time. However, using fixed effects can induce a sizable within-estimation bias if job search outcomes take specific values at the time job seekers exit unemployment. This pattern creates an undesirable mechanical correlation…

内生中介下适用于任意结果变量的简便直接与间接效应分解AI 解读

Given a binary treatment D and a binary mediator M, mediation analysis decomposes the total effect of D on an outcome Y into the direct and indirect effects. Typically, both D and M are assumed to be exogenous, but this paper allows M to be endogenous while maintaining the exogeneity of D, which holds certainly if D is randomized. The endogeneity problem of M is then overcome using a binary instrumental variable Z. We derive a nonparametric "causal reduced form (CRF)" for Y…

指数随机图模型的变分正则化双层估计AI 解读

I propose an estimation algorithm for Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGM), a popular statistical network model for estimating the structural parameters of strategic network formation in economics and finance. Existing methods often produce unreliable estimates of parameters for the triangle, a key network structure that captures the tendency of two individuals with friends in common to connect. Such unreliable estimates may lead to untrustworthy policy recommendations for…

干扰下的因果推断：计算障碍与算法解决方案AI 解读

We study causal effect estimation under interference from network data. We work under the chain-graph formulation pioneered in Tchetgen Tchetgen et. al (2021). Our first result shows that polynomial time evaluation of treatment effects is computationally hard in this framework without additional assumptions on the underlying chain graph. Subsequently, we assume that the interactions among the study units are governed either by (i) a dense graph or (ii) an i.i.d. Gaussian…

一般条件矩下结构参数的自动去偏机器学习AI 解读

This paper proposes a method to automatically construct or estimate Neyman-orthogonal moments in general models defined by a finite number of conditional moment restrictions (CMRs), with possibly different conditioning variables and endogenous regressors. CMRs are allowed to depend on non-parametric components, which might be flexibly modeled using Machine Learning tools, and non-linearly on finite-dimensional parameters. The key step in this construction is the estimation…

面向处理选择的极小极大与贝叶斯最优自适应实验设计AI 解读

We consider an adaptive experiment for treatment choice and design a minimax and Bayes optimal adaptive experiment with respect to regret. Given binary treatments, the experimenter's goal is to choose the treatment with the highest expected outcome through an adaptive experiment, in order to maximize welfare. We consider adaptive experiments that consist of two phases, the treatment allocation phase and the treatment choice phase. The experiment starts with the treatment…

区间数据下的双重差分AI 解读

Difference-in-differences (DID) is one of the most popular tools used to evaluate causal effects of policy interventions. This paper extends the DID methodology to accommodate interval outcomes, which are often encountered in empirical studies using survey or administrative data. We point out that a naive application or extension of the conventional parallel trends assumption may yield uninformative or counterintuitive results, and present a suitable identification strategy,…

多决策时点下个体处理效应的共形预测区间AI 解读

Accurately quantifying uncertainty of individual treatment effects (ITEs) across multiple decision points is crucial for personalized decision-making in fields such as healthcare, finance, education, and online marketplaces. Previous work has focused on predicting non-causal longitudinal estimands or constructing prediction bands for ITEs using cross-sectional data based on exchangeability assumptions. We propose a novel method for constructing prediction intervals using…

产前酒精暴露与儿童认知：半连续暴露的因果推断与证据综合AI 解读

We address the challenge of causal inference status and the dose-response effects with a semi-continuous exposure. A two-stage approach is proposed using estimating equation for multiple outcomes with large sample properties derived for the resulting estimators. Homogeneity tests are developed to assess whether causal effects of exposure status and the dose-response effects are the same across multiple outcomes. A global homogeneity test is also developed to assess whether…

高维回归模型的去偏贝叶斯推断AI 解读

There has been significant progress in Bayesian inference based on sparsity-inducing (e.g., spike-and-slab and horseshoe-type) priors for high-dimensional regression models. The resulting posteriors, however, in general do not possess desirable frequentist properties, and the credible sets thus cannot serve as valid confidence sets even asymptotically. We introduce a novel debiasing approach that corrects the bias for the entire Bayesian posterior distribution. We establish…

因果中介分析的平衡权重AI 解读

This paper develops methods for estimating the natural direct and indirect effects in causal mediation analysis. The efficient influence function-based estimator (EIF-based estimator) and the inverse probability weighting estimator (IPW estimator), which are standard in causal mediation analysis, both rely on the inverse of the estimated propensity scores, and thus they are vulnerable to two key issues (i) instability and (ii) finite-sample covariate imbalance. We propose…

全连接深度神经网络的新逼近结果与最优估计AI 解读

\citet{farrell2021deep} establish non-asymptotic high-probability bounds for general deep feedforward neural network (with rectified linear unit activation function) estimators, with \citet[Theorem 1]{farrell2021deep} achieving a suboptimal convergence rate for fully connected feedforward networks. The authors suggest that improved approximation of fully connected networks could yield sharper versions of \citet[Theorem 1]{farrell2021deep} without altering the theoretical…

价格暴露设计的微观基础与因果解释AI 解读

This paper studies regional exposure designs that use commodity prices as instruments to study local effects of aggregate shocks. Unlike standard shift share designs that leverage differential exposure to many shocks, the price exposure relies on exogenous variation from a single shock, leading to challenges for both identification and inference. We motivate the design using a multi sector labor model. Under the model and a potential outcomes framework, we characterize the…

分批自适应实验的统计推断AI 解读

The advantages of adaptive experiments have led to their rapid adoption in economics, other fields, as well as among practitioners. However, adaptive experiments pose challenges for causal inference. This note suggests a BOLS (batched ordinary least squares) test statistic for inference of treatment effects in adaptive experiments. The statistic provides a precision-equalizing aggregation of per-period treatment-control differences under heteroskedasticity. The combined test…