每日简报

利用截断策略梯度估计量估计非平稳环境中的治疗效应AI 解读

Randomized experiments (or A/B tests) are widely used to evaluate interventions in dynamic systems such as recommendation platforms, marketplaces, and digital health. In these settings, interventions affect both current and future system states, so estimating the global average treatment effect (GATE) requires accounting for temporal dynamics, which is especially challenging in the presence of nonstationarity; existing approaches suffer from high bias, high variance, or…

因果偏好征询AI 解读

We propose causal preference elicitation, a Bayesian framework for expert-in-the-loop causal discovery that actively queries local edge relations to concentrate a posterior over directed acyclic graphs (DAGs). From any black-box observational posterior, we model noisy expert judgments with a three-way likelihood over edge existence and direction. Posterior inference uses a flexible particle approximation, and queries are selected by an efficient expected information gain…

利用大规模在线核学习估计双向因果效应AI 解读

In this study, a scalable online kernel learning framework is proposed for estimating bidirectional causal effects in systems characterized by mutual dependence and heteroskedasticity. Traditional causal inference often focuses on unidirectional effects, overlooking the common bidirectional relationships in real-world phenomena. Building on heteroskedasticity-based identification, the proposed method integrates a quasi-maximum likelihood estimator for simultaneous equation…

超越均值的结构性因果效应与拓扑可忽略性AI 解读

Many interventions alter the structure of an outcome distribution rather than its mean: they can split a population into disconnected regimes, create loops or holes, generate branches, or reorganize an outcome cloud while leaving the average response nearly unchanged. In such settings, mean-based causal estimands such as the average treatment effect may miss important structural effects. We introduce topological-geometrical causal metrics based on summaries of interventional…

利用无标签汇总统计量的半监督推断AI 解读

Semi-supervised inference assumes access to a labeled dataset together with a large unlabeled dataset in which the outcome variable is missing, and it is widely used to improve statistical efficiency and support generalizability across populations. In many modern applications, however, individual-level unlabeled data may not be directly accessible due to privacy restrictions, data-sharing limits, or storage constraints, while summary statistics such as sample means and…

人机交互的助益：混杂环境中的超级强化学习AI 解读

As AI becomes more prevalent throughout society, effective methods of integrating humans and AI systems that leverage their respective strengths and mitigate risk have become an important priority. In this paper, we introduce the paradigm of super policy learning that takes advantage of Human-AI interaction for data driven sequential decision making. This approach utilizes the observed action, either from AI or humans, as input for achieving a stronger oracle in policy…

贝叶斯博弈中信息结构的识别AI 解读

To what extent can an external observer infer the underlying information structure from an equilibrium action distribution in an incomplete-information game? We investigate this question in a general linear-quadratic-Gaussian framework. A simple class of canonical information structures is offered and proves rich enough to rationalize any equilibrium action distribution that can arise under an arbitrary information structure. Moreover, this class is parsimonious in the sense…

半参数偏好优化：语言模型中的单指标模型AI 解读

Policy alignment to preference data typically assumes a known link function between observed preferences and latent rewards (e.g., Bradley-Terry model / logistic link). Misspecification of this link can bias inferred rewards and misalign learned policies. We study policy alignment under an unknown and unrestricted link function. We formulate an $f$-divergence-constrained reward maximization problem and show that realizability in a policy class induces a semiparametric…

不完全模型中的有限样本推断AI 解读

We propose confidence regions for the parameters of incomplete models with exact coverage of the true parameter in finite samples. Our confidence region inverts a test, which generalizes Monte Carlo tests to incomplete models. The test statistic is a discrete analogue of a new optimal-transport formulation of the structural model. Both test statistic and critical values rely on simulation draws from the distribution of latent variables and are computed using solutions to…

半参数贝叶斯双重差分AI 解读

This paper studies semiparametric Bayesian inference for the average treatment effect on the treated (ATT) within the difference-in-differences (DiD) research design. We propose two new Bayesian methods with frequentist validity. The first one is the semiparametric Bayesian outcome regression, where we place a Gaussian process prior on the conditional mean function of the control group. The second method is a doubly robust Bayesian procedure that adjusts the prior…

超越均值：持久同调可忽略性下的拓扑因果效应AI 解读

Average treatment effects (ATE) and conditional average treatment effects (CATE) are foundational causal estimands, but they target changes in expected outcomes and can miss treatment-induced changes in the shape of outcome distributions. A canonical failure mode occurs when control outcomes are unimodal, treated outcomes become bimodal, and both distributions have the same mean. In such cases mean-based causal estimands are zero even though the geometry and topology of the…

基于暴露映射的干扰模型设定检验之不可能性AI 解读

Researchers use interference models based on exposure mappings to facilitate estimation of causal effects in randomized experiments with interference. To test the veracity of such models, researchers can use specification tests that aim to detect departures from the stipulated model. However, existing tests suffer from poor power and are often unable to detect important model violations. The main result in this paper is to show that the specification testing problem for…

含交互固定效应的非线性面板模型的可计算估计AI 解读

Interactive fixed effects are routinely controlled for in linear panel models. While an analogous fixed effects (FE) estimator for nonlinear models has been available in the literature (Chen, Fernandez-Val and Weidner, 2021), it sees much more limited use in applied research because its implementation involves solving a high-dimensional non-convex problem. In this paper, we complement the theoretical analysis of Chen, Fernandez-Val and Weidner (2021) by providing a new…

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…

加成率估计的证伪自适应集合AI 解读

In this paper we provide a constructive way for researchers to salvage the classic De Loecker and Warzynski (2012) markup recovery procedure when falsified. To do this, we consider continuous relaxations of the standard assumptions behind markup estimation. By computing the values of the markup as a function of the relaxations across the set of non-falsified models, we obtain an identified set for the markup which generalizes the standard baseline markup estimand to account…

处理效应完全中介与因果机制可识别性的检验AI 解读

In causal analysis, understanding the causal mechanisms through which an intervention or treatment affects an outcome is often of central interest. We propose a test to evaluate (i) whether the causal effect of a treatment that is randomly assigned conditional on covariates is fully mediated by, or operates exclusively through, observed intermediate outcomes (referred to as mediators or surrogate outcomes), and (ii) whether the various causal mechanisms operating through…

中介模型与动态处理模型中的识别检验AI 解读

We propose a test for the identification of causal effects in mediation and dynamic treatment models that is based on two sets of observed variables, namely covariates to be controlled for and suspected instruments, building on the test by Huber and Kueck (2022) for single treatment models. We consider models with a sequential assignment of a treatment and a mediator to assess the direct treatment effect (net of the mediator), the indirect treatment effect (via the…

配对整群随机实验中基于设计的处理效应估计框架AI 解读

Paired cluster-randomized experiments (pCRTs) are common in education program impact evaluation trials. Although common, there is surprisingly no clear consensus regarding how to analyze this randomization design to estimate average treatment effects. Variance estimation is also complicated due to the dependency created through pairing clusters. Therefore, we aim to provide an intuitive and practical comparison between different estimation strategies for pCRTs to inform…

利用代理变量与工具变量处理 Perturb-seq 中的未观测混杂AI 解读

Emerging single-cell technologies that combine CRISPR-based genetic perturbations with single-cell RNA sequencing, such as Perturb-seq, offer unprecedented opportunities to uncover cause-and-effect relationships among genes. Nonetheless, Perturb-seq experiments are subject to unobserved factors that, if not properly handled, can severely bias the inferred causal relationships between genes. These latent factors may arise not only from intrinsic molecular features of the…

存在不依从时的因果效应推广：深度游说实验应用AI 解读

Standard approaches in generalizability often focus on generalizing the intent-to-treat (ITT). However, in practice, a more policy-relevant quantity is the generalized impact of an intervention across compliers. While instrumental variable (IV) methods are commonly used to estimate the complier average causal effect (CACE) within samples, standard approaches cannot be applied to a target population with a different distribution from the study sample. This paper makes several…

具有潜在群组结构的多关系网络自回归模型AI 解读

Multi-relational networks among entities are frequently observed in the era of big data. Quantifying the effects of multiple networks have attracted significant research interest recently. In this work, we model multiple network effects through an autoregressive framework for tensor-valued time series. To characterize the potential heterogeneity of the networks and handle the high dimensionality of the time series data simultaneously, we assume a separate group structure for…

机器学习分布型工具变量估计中的模型风险AI 解读

We study model risk in machine-learning estimation of the Distributional Instrumental Variable Local Average Treatment Effect (D-IV-LATE), the distributional IV effect for the subpopulation induced into treatment by the instrument. The contribution is not a new neural causal estimand. We implement a reduced-form orthogonal level-score DML estimator for the covariate-adjusted D-IV-LATE target and use it to ask how much the nuisance learner matters for distributional IV…

解释观察性与随机研究因果效应异质性的新分解AI 解读

This paper introduces a novel decomposition framework to explain heterogeneity in causal effects observed across different studies, considering both observational and randomized settings. We present a formal decomposition of between-study heterogeneity, identifying sources of variability in treatment effects across studies. The proposed methodology allows for robust estimation of causal parameters under various assumptions, addressing differences in pre-treatment covariate…

处理启动时间增量因果效应的有效推断AI 解读

We consider continuous time to treatment initiation. This can commonly occur in preventive medicine, such as disease screening and vaccination; it can also occur with non-fatal health conditions such as HIV infection without the onset of AIDS. While traditional causal inference focused on `when to treat' and its effects, we consider the incremental causal effect when the intensity of time to treatment initiation is intervened upon. We derive the efficient influence function…