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扰动下基因调控网络发现的可解释神经常微分方程AI 解读

Modern high-throughput biological datasets containing thousands of perturbations enable large-scale discovery of causal graphs that represent regulatory interactions between genes. Differentiable causal graphical models and regression-based methods have been developed to infer gene regulatory networks (GRNs) from interventional datasets. However, existing approaches fail to capture the non-linear dynamics of biological processes such as cellular differentiation. To address…

随机效应的个体化收缩估计AI 解读

This paper develops an approach to random effects estimation and individual-level forecasting in micropanels that targets individual accuracy rather than aggregate performance. The conventional shrinkage methods used in the literature, such as the James-Stein estimator and Empirical Bayes, target aggregate performance and can lead to inaccurate decisions at the individual level. We propose a class of shrinkage estimators with individual weights (IW) that leverage an…

动态阈值设计中的非参数因果推断AI 解读

We consider causal inference in dynamic settings where treatment is assigned by thresholding a state variable that can change over time. There is a large literature on regression-discontinuity methods building on the fact that, in the static setting, treatment assignment via threshold crossing induces a quasi-experimental design that enables pragmatic causal inference. But dynamic settings involve challenges not present in the static setting, e.g., past treatments may affect…

利用定向工具变量识别处理效应AI 解读

Multivalued treatments are commonplace in applications. We explore the use of discrete-valued instruments to control for selection bias in this setting. Our discussion revolves around the concept of targeting: which instruments target which treatments. It allows us to establish conditions under which counterfactual averages and treatment effects are point- or partially-identified for composite complier groups. We explore the additional identifying power of a positive…

利用多个环境双重稳健识别处理效应AI 解读

Practical and ethical constraints often require the use of observational data for causal inference, particularly in medicine and social sciences. Yet, observational datasets are prone to confounding, potentially compromising the validity of causal conclusions. While it is possible to correct for biases if the underlying causal graph is known, this is rarely a feasible ask in practical scenarios. A common strategy is to adjust for all available covariates, yet this approach…

自适应采集数据下的核处理效应AI 解读

Adaptive experiments improve efficiency by adjusting treatment assignments based on past outcomes, but this adaptivity breaks the i.i.d.\ assumptions that underpin classical asymptotics. At the same time, many questions of interest are distributional, extending beyond average effects. Kernel treatment effects (KTE) provide a flexible framework by representing interventional outcome distributions in an RKHS and comparing them via kernel distances. We present the first…

通过量化对处理效应估计的影响改进偏差校正评价标准AI 解读

With the growing access to administrative health databases, retrospective studies have become crucial evidence for medical treatments. Yet, non-randomized studies frequently face selection biases, requiring mitigation strategies. Propensity score matching (PSM) addresses these biases by selecting comparable populations, allowing for analysis without further methodological constraints. However, PSM has several drawbacks. Different matching methods can produce significantly…

偏好性采样下的空间因果推断：海洋保护区影响评估AI 解读

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have been established globally to conserve marine resources. Given their maintenance costs and impact on commercial fishing, it is critical to evaluate their effectiveness to support future conservation. In this paper, we use data collected from the Australian coast to estimate the effect of MPAs on biodiversity. Environmental studies such as these are often observational, and processes of interest exhibit spatial dependence, which presents…

有限总体识别与基于设计的敏感性分析AI 解读

We develop a new approach for quantifying uncertainty in finite populations, by using design distributions to calibrate sensitivity parameters in finite population identified sets. This yields uncertainty intervals that can be interpreted as identified sets, robust Bayesian credible sets, or uniform frequentist design-based confidence sets. We focus on quantifying uncertainty about the average treatment effect, where our approach (1) yields design-based confidence intervals…

通过有限观测信息汇总界定处理效应AI 解读

We provide novel bounds on average treatment effects (on the treated) that are valid under an unconfoundedness assumption. Our bounds are designed to be robust in challenging situations, for example, when the conditioning variables take on a large number of different values in the observed sample, or when the overlap condition is violated. This robustness is achieved by only using limited "pooling" of information across observations. Namely, the bounds are constructed as…

检验双重差分平行趋势违背时的有效推断AI 解读

The difference-in-differences (DID) research design is a key identification strategy which allows researchers to estimate causal effects under the parallel trends assumption. While the parallel trends assumption is counterfactual and cannot be tested directly, researchers often examine pre-treatment periods to check whether the time trends are parallel before treatment is administered. A recent literature has shown that existing preliminary tests have adverse effects on…

乘法工具变量模型AI 解读

The instrumental variable (IV) design is a common approach to address hidden confounding bias. For validity, an IV must impact the outcome only through its association with the treatment. In addition, IV identification has required a homogeneity condition such as monotonicity or no unmeasured common effect modifier between the additive effect of the treatment on the outcome, and that of the IV on the treatment. In this work, we introduce the Multiplicative Instrumental…

无重叠情况下的平均处理效应界AI 解读

The average treatment effect (ATE), the mean difference in potential outcomes under treatment and control, is a canonical causal effect. Overlap, which says that all subjects have non-zero probability of either treatment status, is necessary to identify and estimate the ATE. When overlap fails, the standard solution is to change the estimand, and target a trimmed effect in a subpopulation satisfying overlap. When the outcome is bounded, we demonstrate that this compromise is…

具有连续效果与实施终点的二型混合整群随机试验设计方法比较AI 解读

Hybrid type 2 studies are gaining popularity for their ability to assess both implementation and health outcomes as co-primary endpoints. Often conducted as cluster-randomized trials (CRTs), five design methods can validly power these studies: p-value adjustment methods, combined outcomes approach, single weighted 1-DF test, disjunctive 2-DF test, and conjunctive test. We compared these methods theoretically and numerically. Theoretical comparisons of power equations allowed…

再随机化与分层再随机化下灵活协变量调整的渐近推断AI 解读

Rerandomization is an effective treatment allocation procedure to control for baseline covariate imbalance. For estimating the average treatment effect, rerandomization has been previously shown to improve the precision of the unadjusted and the linearly-adjusted estimators over simple randomization without compromising consistency. However, it remains unclear whether such results apply more generally to the class of M-estimators, including the g-computation formula with…

在目标试验中嵌入目标研究：评估干预对群体差距的影响AI 解读

We present a novel framework (TS+TT) to nest a Target Study (TS) within a Target Trial (TT) for evaluating the effects of interventions on disparities. The TS component grounds the measurement of disparity in ethical assumptions, based on the concept of allowability, and anchors it to an explicit population within calendar time. It specifies an enrollment plan of stratified sampling of eligible persons to yield a sample where social groups are distributionally similar on…

人工超级智能的决策理论视角：预测与处理选择中的缺失数据问题AI 解读

Enormous attention and resources are being devoted to the quest for artificial general intelligence and, even more ambitiously, artificial superintelligence. We wonder about the implications for methodological research that aims to help decision makers cope with what econometricians call identification problems, inferential problems in empirical research that do not diminish as sample size grows. Of particular concern are missing data problems in prediction and treatment…

条件边际效应估计的实用指南：现代方法AI 解读

This Element offers a practical guide to estimating conditional marginal effects-how treatment effects vary with a moderating variable-using modern statistical methods. Commonly used approaches, such as linear interaction models, often suffer from unclarified estimands, limited overlap, and restrictive functional forms. This guide begins by clearly defining the estimand and presenting the main identification results. It then reviews and improves upon existing solutions, such…

错位实施双重差分中组别—时间—分层效应的贝叶斯估计AI 解读

Difference-in-Differences designs with staggered treatment adoption are widely used to study heterogeneous treatment effects across cohorts and time periods. We develop a probabilistic framework for estimating potentially high-dimensional ATT arrays that vary across cohorts, periods, and strata defined by baseline covariates. The framework jointly estimates subgroup-specific treatment effects through a unified likelihood-based model, stabilizing inference in sparse…

多维匹配的半非参数模型：最优运输方法AI 解读

This paper develops a set of empirically tractable and flexible sieve estimators for semi-nonparametric multidimensional matching models with transferable utility, focusing on worker-job matching. We generalize the parametric quadratic-Gaussian framework employed by Bojilov and Galichon (2016) and Lindenlaub (2017), which relies on joint normality of observed characteristics. We allow unrestricted distributions of characteristics and show identification of the production…

自适应实验的选择性随机化推断AI 解读

Adaptive experiments use preliminary analyses of the data to inform further course of action and are commonly used in many disciplines including medical and social sciences. Because the null hypothesis and experimental design are data-dependent, it has long been recognized that statistical inference for adaptive experiments is not straightforward. Most existing methods only apply to specific adaptive designs and rely on strong assumptions. In this work, we propose selective…

通过数据驱动协变量调整实现随机临床试验的自动化高效无模型推断AI 解读

In 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued guidance for adjustment of covariates in randomized clinical trials, emphasizing its role in enhancing precision and power through prognostic baseline variables. Despite its potential, many trials underutilize this method partly due to challenges in pre-specifying optimal baseline covariates and their functional forms. We explore the potential of automated, data-adaptive methods-including stepwise regression, Lasso and…

含未观测混杂因素的贝叶斯结构化中介分析AI 解读

We explore methods to reduce the impact of unobserved confounders on the causal mediation analysis of high-dimensional mediators with spatially smooth structures, such as brain imaging data. The key approach is to incorporate the latent individual effects, which influence the structured mediators, as unobserved confounders in the outcome model, thereby potentially debiasing the mediation effects. We develop BAyesian Structured Mediation analysis with Unobserved confounders…

序贯非单调缺失下的双重稳健 GMM 估计量AI 解读

We study moment-based estimation with two sequentially collected variables subject to non-monotone missingness. The commonly used Missing at Random (MAR) assumption requiring all missingness mechanisms to depend on the same fully observed covariates often fails in such cases. We introduce a sequential MAR assumption that allows asymmetric missingness mechanisms across stages. Based on this assumption, we construct an Augmented Inverse-Probability-Weighted GMM (AIPW-GMM)…