每日简报

揭示实用性老年医学试验中的处理效应异质性AI 解读

Detecting heterogeneity in treatment response enriches the interpretation of gerontologic trials. In aging research, estimating the effect of the intervention on clinically meaningful outcomes faces analytical challenges when it is truncated by death. For example, in the Whole Systems Demonstrator trial, a large cluster-randomized study evaluating telecare among older adults, the overall effect of the intervention on quality of life was found to be null. However, this…

部分平稳性下非线性动态面板模型的识别AI 解读

This paper provides a general identification approach for a wide range of nonlinear panel data models, including binary choice, ordered response, and other types of limited dependent variable models. Our approach accommodates dynamic models with any number of lagged dependent variables as well as other types of endogenous covariates. Our identification strategy relies on a partial stationarity condition, which allows for not only an unknown distribution of errors, but also…

避免适应性的代价：基于稳定性的线性情境赌博机推断AI 解读

Statistical inference in contextual bandits is challenging due to the adaptive, non-i.i.d. nature of the data. A growing body of work shows that classical least-squares inference can fail under adaptive sampling, and that valid confidence intervals for linear functionals typically require an inflation of order $\sqrt{d \log T}$. This phenomenon -- often termed the price of adaptivity -- reflects the intrinsic difficulty of reliable inference under general contextual bandit…

统计决策问题的 ε 极小极大解AI 解读

A decision rule is epsilon-minimax if it is minimax up to an additive factor epsilon. We present an algorithm for provably obtaining epsilon-minimax solutions for a class of statistical decision problems. In particular, we are interested in problems where the statistician chooses randomly among I decision rules. The minimax solution of these problems admits a convex programming representation over the (I-1)-simplex. Our suggested algorithm is a well-known mirror subgradient…

潜在结局实验的因果推断：关键结果及其设计与分析含义AI 解读

How should researchers analyze randomized experiments in which the main outcome is latent and measured in multiple ways but each measure contains some degree of error? We first identify a critical study-specific noncomparability problem in existing methods for handling multiple measurements, which often rely on strong modeling assumptions or arbitrary standardization. Such approaches render the resulting estimands noncomparable across studies. To address the problem, we…

基于反事实预测的处理效应估计AI 解读

We consider estimation and inference of the effects of a policy in the absence of an untreated or control group. We obtain unbiased estimators of individual (heterogeneous) treatment effects and a consistent and asymptotically normal estimator of the average treatment effect. Our estimator averages, across individuals, the difference between observed post-treatment outcomes and unbiased forecasts of their counterfactuals, based on a (short) time series of pre-treatment data.…

贝叶斯平滑分位数回归AI 解读

The standard asymmetric Laplace framework for Bayesian quantile regression (BQR) suffers from a fundamental decision-theoretic misalignment, yielding biased finite-sample estimates, and precludes gradient-based computation due to non-smoothness. We propose Bayesian smoothed quantile regression (BSQR), a principled framework built on a kernel-smoothed, fully differentiable likelihood. Methodologically, the symmetrizing property of our objective reduces inferential bias and…

厘清序贯平行比较设计中治疗效应的识别与估计AI 解读

Sequential parallel comparison design (SPCD) clinical trials aim to adjust active treatment effect estimates for placebo response to minimize the impact of placebo responders on the estimates. This is potentially accomplished using a two stage design by measuring treatment effects among all participants during the first stage, then classifying some placebo arm participants as placebo non-responders who will be re-randomized in the second stage. In this paper, we use causal…

冲突图设计：任意邻域干扰下的因果效应估计AI 解读

A fundamental problem in network experiments is selecting an appropriate experimental design in order to precisely estimate a given causal effect of interest. In this work, we propose the Conflict Graph Design, a general approach for constructing experiment designs under network interference with the goal of precisely estimating a pre-specified causal effect. A central aspect of our approach is the notion of a conflict graph, which captures the fundamental unobservability…

自适应 Neyman 分配AI 解读

In the experimental design literature, Neyman allocation refers to the practice of allocating units into treated and control groups, potentially in unequal numbers proportional to their respective standard deviations, with the objective of minimizing the variance of the treatment effect estimator. This widely recognized approach increases statistical power in scenarios where the treated and control groups have different standard deviations, as is often the case in social…

基于部分处理历史的边际结构模型：时变处理效应估计AI 解读

Inverse probability (IP) weighting of marginal structural models (MSMs) can provide consistent estimators of time-varying treatment effects under correct model specifications and identifiability assumptions, even in the presence of time-varying confounding. However, this method has two problems: (i) inefficiency due to IP-weights cumulating all time points and (ii) bias and inefficiency due to the MSM misspecification. To address these problems, we propose (i) new IP-weights…

基于双重／去偏机器学习的时变连续处理双重差分AI 解读

We propose a difference-in-differences (DiD) framework designed for time-varying continuous treatments across multiple periods. Specifically, we estimate the average treatment effect on the treated (ATET) by comparing distinct non-zero treatment intensities. Identification rests on a conditional parallel trends assumption that accounts for observed covariates and past treatment histories. Our approach allows for lagged treatment effects and, in repeated cross-sectional…

双向聚类依赖下的极端分位数AI 解读

This paper studies extremal quantiles under two-way clustered dependence. We show that the limiting distribution of unconditional intermediate-order tail quantiles is Gaussian. This result is notable because two-way clustering typically leads to non-Gaussian limiting behavior. Remarkably, extremal quantiles remain asymptotically Gaussian even in degenerate cases. Building on this insight, we extend our analysis to extremal quantile regression at intermediate orders.…

高维尾指数回归AI 解读

Motivated by the empirical observation of power-law distributions in the credits (e.g., ``likes'') of viral posts in social media, we introduce a high-dimensional tail index regression model and propose methods for estimation and inference of its parameters. First, we propose a regularized estimator, establish its consistency, and derive its convergence rate. Second, we debias the regularized estimator to facilitate inference and prove its asymptotic normality. Simulation…

利用工具变量在内生性下学习政策规则AI 解读

I propose a framework for learning individualized policy rules in observational data settings characterized by endogenous treatment selection and the availability of an instrumental variable. I introduce encouragement rules that manipulate the instrument. By incorporating the marginal treatment effect (MTE) as a policy invariant parameter, I establish the identification of the social welfare criterion for the optimal encouragement rule. Focusing on binary encouragement…

重新审视同质产品市场中行为参数的识别AI 解读

We revisit the identification of the conduct parameter in homogeneous goods markets. Lau (1982) argues that the conduct parameter is not identified if and only if the inverse demand function is separable, except for a specific separable function. This result has been regarded as an extension of the result in Bresnahan (1982) to more general settings. However, we show that Lau's claim is incorrect and provide a new characterization of the non-identification. Our…

内生网络图上的实验设计与效应估计AI 解读

We study experimentation under endogenous network interference. Interference patterns are mediated by an endogenous graph, where edges can be formed or eliminated as a result of treatment. We show that conventional estimators are biased in these circumstances, and present a class of unbiased, consistent and asymptotically normal estimators of total treatment effects in the presence of such interference. We show via simulation that our estimator outperforms existing…

基于倾向得分、目标政策与处理成本的插值随机干预AI 解读

We introduce two families of stochastic interventions with discrete treatments that connect causal modeling to cost-sensitive decision making. The interventions arise from a cost-penalized information projection of the independent product of the organic propensity scores and a reference policy, yielding closed-form Boltzmann-Gibbs couplings. The induced marginals define modified stochastic policies that interpolate smoothly, via a tilt parameter, from the organic law or from…

评估差分隐私对随机对照试验分析的实用性AI 解读

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have become powerful tools for assessing the impact of interventions and policies in many contexts. They are considered the gold standard for causal inference in the biomedical fields and many social sciences. Researchers have published an increasing number of studies that rely on RCTs for at least part of their inference. These studies typically include the response data that has been collected, de-identified, and sometimes protected…

用平均导数效应参数化连续处理的影响AI 解读

The average treatment effect (ATE) is commonly used to quantify the main effect of a binary treatment on an outcome. Extensions to continuous treatments are usually based on the dose-response curve or shift interventions, but both require strong overlap conditions and the resulting curves may be difficult to summarise. We focus instead on average derivative effects (ADEs) that are scalar estimands related to infinitesimal shift interventions requiring only local overlap…

多维断点回归设计的局部多项式估计AI 解读

We study a multivariate regression discontinuity design in which treatment is assigned by crossing a boundary in the space of multiple running variables. We document that the existing bandwidth selector is suboptimal for a multivariate regression discontinuity design when the distance to a boundary point is used for its running variable, and introduce a multivariate local-linear estimator for multivariate regression discontinuity designs. Our estimator is asymptotically…

利用扩展传染病模型进行因果推断AI 解读

Epidemic models describe the evolution of a communicable disease over time. These models are often modified to include the effects of interventions (control measures) such as vaccination, social distancing, school closings etc. Many such models were proposed during the COVID-19 epidemic. Inevitably these models are used to answer the question: What is the effect of the intervention on the epidemic? These models can either be interpreted as data generating models describing…

多维异质性动态非线性面板的去偏推断AI 解读

We introduce a generic class of dynamic nonlinear heterogeneous parameter models that incorporate individual and time fixed effects in both the intercept and slope. These models are subject to the incidental parameter problem, in that the limiting distribution of the point estimator is not centered at zero, and that test statistics do not follow their standard asymptotic distributions as in the absence of the fixed effects. To address the problem, we develop an analytical…

允许弃权的政策学习AI 解读

Policy learning algorithms are widely used in areas such as personalized medicine and advertising to develop individualized treatment regimes. However, most methods force a decision even when predictions are uncertain, which is risky in high-stakes settings. We study policy learning with abstention, where a policy may defer to a safe default or an expert. When a policy abstains, it receives a small additive reward on top of the value of a random guess. We propose a two-stage…