每日简报

带连续标记的删失数据因果推断AI 解读

This paper presents a framework for causal inference in the presence of censored data,where the failure time is marked by a continuous variable referred to as a mark.The mark is observed after treatment and is not meaningful when the failure time is censored. In addition, due to the continuous nature of the marks, observations at each given mark are sparse. These facts make the identification and estimation of causality a challenging task. To address these issues, we define…

有限重叠下因果推断的敏感性方法AI 解读

Limited overlap between treated and control groups is a key challenge in observational analysis. Standard approaches like trimming importance weights can reduce variance but introduce a fundamental bias. We propose a sensitivity framework for contextualizing findings under limited overlap, where we assess how irregular the outcome function has to be in order for the main finding to be invalidated. Our approach is based on worst-case confidence bounds on the bias introduced…

内生处理分配下已处理者平均处理效应的有效估计AI 解读

In this paper, we consider estimation of average treatment effect on the treated (ATT), an interpretable and relevant causal estimand to policy makers when treatment assignment is endogenous. By considering shadow variables that are unrelated to the treatment assignment but related to the outcomes of interest, we establish identification of the ATT. Then we focus on efficient estimation of the ATT by characterizing the geometric structure of the likelihood, deriving the…

电子健康记录研究中随治疗启动时间变化的因果效应框架AI 解读

Standard practice in electronic health record (EHR)-based studies evaluating the comparative effectiveness of bariatric surgery relative to no surgery is to estimate and report a constant treatment effect across calendar time. However, real-world treatment strategies can evolve, particularly when comparators include standard of care or surgical procedures where techniques may improve, making it clinically important to ascertain whether efficacy of bariatric surgery has…

扰动效用随机交通均衡的敏感性分析AI 解读

This paper develops a sensitivity analysis framework for the perturbed utility route choice (PURC) model and the accompanying stochastic traffic equilibrium model. We derive analytical sensitivity expressions for the Jacobian of the individual optimal PURC flow and equilibrium link flows with respect to link cost parameters under general assumptions. This allows us to determine the marginal change in link flows following a marginal change in link costs across the network. We…

固定效应模型的刀切法推断AI 解读

This paper develops a general method of inference for fixed effects models which is (i) automatic, (ii) computationally inexpensive, (iii) tuning parameter-free, and (iv) highly model agnostic. Specifically, we show how to combine a collection of subsample estimators into a jackknife $t$-statistic, from which hypothesis tests, confidence intervals, and $p$-values are readily obtained.

重复匹配博弈的实证框架AI 解读

We introduce a model of dynamic matching with transferable utility, extending the static model of Shapley and Shubik (1971). Forward-looking agents have individual states that evolve with current matches. Each period, a matching market with market-clearing prices takes place. We prove the existence of an equilibrium with time-varying distributions of agent types and show it is the solution to a social planner's problem. We also prove that a stationary equilibrium exists. We…

balnet：协变量平衡倾向得分的路径估计AI 解读

We present balnet, an R package for scalable pathwise estimation of covariate balancing propensity scores via logistic covariate balancing loss functions. Regularization paths are computed with Yang and Hastie (2024)'s generic elastic net solver, supporting convex losses with non-smooth penalties, as well as group penalties and feature-specific penalty factors. For lasso penalization, balnet computes a regularization path of balancing weights from the largest observed…

反事实密度效应与德国东西部收入差距AI 解读

We propose a novel framework for conducting causal inference based on counterfactual densities. While the current paradigm of causal inference is mostly focused on estimating average treatment effects (ATEs), which restricts the analysis to the first moment of the outcome variable, our density-based approach is able to detect causal effects based on general distributional characteristics. Following the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition approach, we consider two types of…

衡量健康不平等的因果方差分解AI 解读

Recent causal inference literature has introduced causal effect decompositions to quantify sources of observed inequalities or disparities in outcomes, but these approaches are typically limited to pairwise comparisons. In healthcare delivery settings, both the exposure of interest-hospital or healthcare unit-and sociodemographic group membership may be polytomous, making pairwise contrasts inadequate. We therefore take the observed variance in care delivery outcomes as the…

基于设计的嵌套工具变量分析AI 解读

Two binary instrumental variables (IVs) are nested if individuals who comply under one binary IV also comply under the other. This situation often arises when the two IVs represent different intensities of encouragement or discouragement to take the treatment, with one stronger than the other. In a nested IV structure, treatment effects can be identified for two latent subgroups: always-compliers and switchers. Always-compliers are individuals who comply even under the…

考虑可允许性设定的因果分解分析估计策略AI 解读

Causal decomposition analysis (CDA) is an approach for modeling the impact of hypothetical interventions to reduce disparities. It is useful for identifying foci that future interventions, including multilevel and multimodal interventions, could focus on to reduce disparities. Based within the potential outcomes framework, CDA has a causal interpretation when the identifying assumptions are met. CDA also allows an analyst to consider which covariates are allowable (i.e.,…

回归调整的设计型有限样本分析AI 解读

In randomized experiments, regression adjustment can improve the precision of average treatment effect (ATE) estimation using covariates without requiring a correctly specified outcome model. Although well studied in low-dimensional settings, its behavior in high-dimensional regimes, where the number of covariates $p$ may exceed the number of observations $n$, remains underexplored. Moreover, existing analyses are largely asymptotic, providing limited guidance for…

集合值控制函数AI 解读

The control function approach allows the researcher to identify various causal effects of interest. While powerful, it requires a strong invertibility assumption in the selection process, which limits its applicability. This paper expands the scope of the nonparametric control function approach by allowing the control function to be set-valued and derive sharp bounds on structural parameters. The proposed generalization accommodates a wide range of selection processes…

仅用成交价格对多竞标者拍卖进行推断AI 解读

This paper studies inference in first-price and second-price sealed-bid auctions with many bidders, using an asymptotic framework where the number of bidders increases while the number of auctions remains fixed. Our approach enables asymptotically exact inference on key features, such as the winner's expected utility, the seller's expected revenue, and the tail of the valuation distribution, using only transaction price data. Our simulations demonstrate the accuracy of the…

单侧不依从聚类随机试验中的潜在依从性贝叶斯建模AI 解读

In pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trials (PCRCTs), healthcare providers are randomized while both providers and patients may deviate from the assigned intervention. In many PCRCTs, cluster-level implementation is measured using multiple continuous metrics, while individual compliance is recorded as a binary indicator. Standard complier average causal effect (CACE) estimands focus on individual-level compliance and do not account for heterogeneity in implementation…

分布稳健的治疗效应预测AI 解读

Using only retrospective data, we study the problem of predicting treatment effects for the same treatment/policy implemented in a different location or time period. We propose a distributionally robust estimator that minimizes the worst-case mean squared error for the prediction of treatment effect over a class of distributions defined by a Wasserstein neighborhood around the source distribution. Because the joint distribution of potential outcomes is unidentified, the…

模糊断点回归的一类广义有限矩估计量AI 解读

The standard fuzzy regression discontinuity (FRD) estimator is a ratio of differences of local polynomial estimators. I show that this estimator does not possess any finite integer moments, regardless of local polynomial degree, kernel function, or bandwidth. The estimator is heavy-tailed in small samples or when the treatment probability discontinuity at the cutoff is small. I present a generalized class of FRD estimators which preserves all finite moments from the data,…

将专家知识纳入有向无环图混合的贝叶斯因果发现AI 解读

Bayesian causal discovery benefits from prior information elicited from domain experts, and in heterogeneous domains any prior knowledge would be badly needed. However, so far prior elicitation approaches have assumed a single causal graph and hence are not suited to heterogeneous domains. We propose a causal elicitation strategy for heterogeneous settings, based on Bayesian experimental design (BED) principles, and a variational mixture structure learning (VaMSL) method --…

多地点异质性处理效应推广的极小极大遗憾估计AI 解读

To test scientific theories and develop individualized treatment rules, researchers often wish to learn heterogeneous treatment effects that can be consistently found across diverse populations and contexts. We consider the problem of generalizing heterogeneous treatment effects (HTE) based on data from multiple sites. A key challenge is that a target population may differ from the source sites in unknown and unobservable ways. This means that the estimates from…

CausalCompass：模型错设情景下时间序列因果发现的稳健性评估AI 解读

Causal discovery from time series is a fundamental task in machine learning. However, its widespread adoption is hindered by a reliance on untestable causal assumptions and by the lack of robustness-oriented evaluation in existing benchmarks. To address these challenges, we propose CausalCompass, a flexible and extensible benchmark framework designed to assess the robustness of time-series causal discovery (TSCD) methods under violations of modeling assumptions. To…

动态面板 Logit 模型中马尔可夫反馈与不可观测异质性的充分统计量AI 解读

In this paper, we examine identification in dynamic panel logit models with state dependence, a first-order Markov feedback process, and individual unobserved heterogeneity by introducing sufficient statistics for the feedback process and the unobserved heterogeneity. If a sequentially exogenous discrete covariate follows a first-order Markov process, identification via conditional likelihood is infeasible regardless of the time period. We also establish the failure of point…

用线性混合模型检测整群随机试验处理效应异质性：样本量与功效教程AI 解读

Cluster-randomized trials (CRTs) are a well-established class of designs for evaluating community-based interventions. An essential task in planning these trials is determining the number of clusters and cluster sizes needed to achieve sufficient statistical power for detecting a clinically relevant effect size. While methods for evaluating the average treatment effect (ATE) for the entire study population are well-established, sample size methods for testing heterogeneity…

二元暴露状态下连续暴露的条件广义倾向评分空间匹配AI 解读

Propensity score (PS) matching to estimate causal effects of exposure is biased when unmeasured spatial confounding exists. Some exposures are continuous yet dependent on a binary variable (e.g., level of a contaminant (continuous) within a specified radius from residence (binary)). Further, unmeasured spatial confounding may vary by spatial patterns for both continuous and binary attributes of exposure. We propose a new generalized propensity score (GPS) matching method for…