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稳定化高阶影响函数：一类双线性形式的统计理论AI 解读

Higher-order influence functions, introduced in a series of articles (Robins et al., 2008, 2009a; van der Vaart, 2014; Robins et al., 2016, 2023; Liu et al., 2017), are a unified framework for constructing rate-optimal point estimates of a class of statistical functionals under various complexity-reducing assumptions on the posited statistical model that generates the observed data. Although higher-order (influence functions) estimators are theoretically appealing, they have…

结构未知模型下双重机器学习估计量的渐近不可容许性AI 解读

Structure-agnostic (SA) models introduced by Balakrishnan et al. (2026) aim to reflect the general lack of knowledge of structural assumptions on data-generating laws such as smoothness or sparsity in practice. Roughly speaking, SA models restrict the observed-data generating law to be in some rn-neighborhood of (black-box machine learning) estimates, treated as given and fixed, where rn encodes the convergence rates of the estimates to the truth. Under SA models,…

嵌套马尔可夫模型等式约束下的半参数效率理论探索AI 解读

Probabilistic models of Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs) with latent variables impose equality constraints on the observed data distribution beyond ordinary conditional independencies. These so-called Verma constraints arise in nested Markov models associated with Acyclic Directed Mixed Graphs, the latent projection of latent-variable DAGs. While nested Markov models have been extensively studied from the perspectives of graphical representation and causal identification,…

利用非二元工具变量估计平均处理效应AI 解读

Non-binary instrumental variables, especially continuous ones, are common in practice. A binary recoding induces a Wald ratio but may discard useful variation and reduce efficiency. Although fully nonparametric approaches can in principle use the entire instrument, they often require high-dimensional nuisance estimation which can be unstable with rich covariates. We address this problem by developing a generalized Wald estimand for binary treatments that uses the full…

随机临床试验中协变量调整 g-computation 的偏差减少AI 解读

G-computation is a powerful method for estimating unconditional treatment effects with covariate adjustment in randomized clinical trials. It typically relies on fitting canonical generalized linear models. However, this could be problematic when the sample size or event number is small relative to the number of covariates. Common issues include the underestimation of the variance and the potential nonexistence of maximum likelihood estimators. Bias reduction methods are…

Napkin 因果图下的因果推断AI 解读

Unmeasured confounding can render identification strategies based on adjustment functionals invalid. We study the "Napkin" graph, a causal structure that encapsulates features of M-bias, instrumental variables, and classical back-door and front-door settings, yet identifies the average treatment effect through a nonstandard ratio of two g-formulas. We develop influence-function-based estimators for this functional, including doubly-robust one-step and targeted minimum…

一般处理模型中的高阶去偏估计器AI 解读

It is now well known that estimators based on influence functions can be sub-optimal in terms of convergence rates in various settings. To address this issue, higher-order influence functions (HOIF) are developed, generalizing the classical semiparametric theory. However, most existing results in this regard focus on treatment effect parameters defined in explicit forms, such as average treatment effects (ATE). In applications, economists are often confronted with tasks of…

半参数有效的经验高阶影响函数估计量AI 解读

Robins et al. (2008, 2017) applied the theory of higher order influence functions (HOIFs) to derive an estimator of the mean $ψ$ of an outcome Y in a missing data model with Y missing at random conditional on a vector X of continuous covariates; their estimator, in contrast to previous estimators, is semiparametric efficient under the minimal conditions of Robins et al. (2009b), together with an additional (non-minimal) smoothness condition on the density g of X, because the…

协变量自适应随机化下 p=o(n) 的弱模型假设协变量调整AI 解读

Adjusting for (baseline) covariates with working regression models becomes standard practice in the analysis of randomized clinical trials (RCT). When the dimension $p$ of the covariates is large relative to the sample size $n$, specifically $p = o (n)$, adjusting for covariates even in a linear working model by ordinary least squares can yield overly large bias, defeating the purpose of improving efficiency. This issue arises when no structural assumptions are imposed on…

受高阶影响函数启发的随机实验协变量调整AI 解读

Higher-Order Influence Functions (HOIF), developed in a series of papers over the past twenty years, are a fundamental theoretical device for constructing rate-optimal causal-effect estimators from observational studies. However, the value of HOIF for analyzing well-conducted randomized controlled trials (RCT) has not been explicitly explored. In the recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency guidelines on the practice of covariate adjustment in…

同时反馈与未观测混杂下的同伴效应估计AI 解读

Estimating peer causal effects within complex real-world networks such as social networks is challenging, primarily due to simultaneous feedback between peers and unobserved confounders. Existing methods either address unobserved confounders while ignoring the simultaneous feedback, or account for feedback but under restrictive linear assumptions, thus failing to obtain accurate peer effect estimation. In this paper, we propose DIG2RSI, a novel Deep learning framework which…

比例渐近下广义线性模型与双重稳健泛函的矩估计推断AI 解读

In this paper, we consider the estimation of regression coefficients and signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio in high-dimensional Generalized Linear Models (GLMs), and explore their implications in inferring popular estimands such as average treatment effects in high-dimensional observational studies. Under the ``proportional asymptotic'' regime and Gaussian covariates with known (population) covariance $Σ$, we derive Consistent and Asymptotically Normal (CAN) estimators of our…

随机临床试验协变量调整中基于影响函数方差的稳健 g 计算得分检验AI 解读

G-computation has become a widely used robust method for estimating unconditional (marginal) treatment effects with covariate adjustment in the analysis of randomized clinical trials. Statistical inference in this context typically relies on the Wald test or Wald interval, which can be easily implemented using a consistent variance estimator. However, existing literature suggests that when sample sizes are small or when parameters of interest are near boundary values,…

最小稀疏性下含高维干扰函数的根号样本量一致半参数学习AI 解读

Treatment effect estimation under unconfoundedness is a fundamental task in causal inference. In response to the challenge of analyzing high-dimensional datasets collected in substantive fields such as epidemiology, genetics, economics, and social sciences, various methods for treatment effect estimation with high-dimensional nuisance parameters (the outcome regression and the propensity score) have been developed in recent years. However, it is still unclear what is the…

利用可识别变分自编码器处理潜在混杂与处理后变量的因果效应估计AI 解读

Estimating causal effects from observational data is challenging, especially in the presence of latent confounders. Much work has been done on addressing this challenge, but most of the existing research ignores the bias introduced by the post-treatment variables. In this paper, we propose a novel method of joint Variational AutoEncoder (VAE) and identifiable Variational AutoEncoder (iVAE) for learning the representations of latent confounders and latent post-treatment…

观察研究因果推断中 Mann–Whitney–Wilcoxon 秩和统计量的双重稳健估计AI 解读

The Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon rank sum test (MWWRST) is a widely used method for comparing two treatment groups in randomized control trials, particularly when dealing with highly skewed data. However, when applied to observational study data, the MWWRST often yields invalid results for causal inference. To address this limitation, Wu et al. (2014) introduced an approach that incorporates inverse probability weighting (IPW) into this rank-based statistics to mitigate confounding…

因果中介分析的解耦表示AI 解读

Estimating direct and indirect causal effects from observational data is crucial to understanding the causal mechanisms and predicting the behaviour under different interventions. Causal mediation analysis is a method that is often used to reveal direct and indirect effects. Deep learning shows promise in mediation analysis, but the current methods only assume latent confounders that affect treatment, mediator and outcome simultaneously, and fail to identify different types…

含时变潜在混杂的纵向数据因果推断：工具变量估计AI 解读

Causal inference from longitudinal observational data is a challenging problem due to the difficulty in correctly identifying the time-dependent confounders, especially in the presence of latent time-dependent confounders. Instrumental variable (IV) is a powerful tool for addressing the latent confounders issue, but the traditional IV technique cannot deal with latent time-dependent confounders in longitudinal studies. In this work, we propose a novel Time-dependent…

应对混杂与 M 偏差的解耦潜在表征学习AI 解读

In causal inference, it is a fundamental task to estimate the causal effect from observational data. However, latent confounders pose major challenges in causal inference in observational data, for example, confounding bias and M-bias. Recent data-driven causal effect estimators tackle the confounding bias problem via balanced representation learning, but assume no M-bias in the system, thus they fail to handle the M-bias. In this paper, we identify a challenging and…

双重机器学习估计量速率双重稳健性的弱假设证伪检验AI 解读

The class of doubly-robust (DR) functionals studied by Rotnitzky et al. (2021) is of central importance in economics and biostatistics. It strictly includes both (i) the class of mean-square continuous functionals that can be written as an expectation of an affine functional of a conditional expectation studied by Chernozhukov et al. (2022b) and (ii) the class of functionals studied by Robins et al. (2008). The present state-of-the-art estimators for DR functionals $ψ$ are…

学习条件工具变量表征以估计因果效应AI 解读

One of the fundamental challenges in causal inference is to estimate the causal effect of a treatment on its outcome of interest from observational data. However, causal effect estimation often suffers from the impacts of confounding bias caused by unmeasured confounders that affect both the treatment and the outcome. The instrumental variable (IV) approach is a powerful way to eliminate the confounding bias from latent confounders. However, the existing IV-based estimators…

结合变分自编码器与前门准则的因果效应估计AI 解读

An essential problem in causal inference is estimating causal effects from observational data. The problem becomes more challenging with the presence of unobserved confounders. When there are unobserved confounders, the commonly used back-door adjustment is not applicable. Although the instrumental variable (IV) methods can deal with unobserved confounders, they all assume that the treatment directly affects the outcome, and there is no mediator between the treatment and the…

将预测模型与因果效应估计相连接AI 解读

A predictive model makes outcome predictions based on some given features, i.e., it estimates the conditional probability of the outcome given a feature vector. In general, a predictive model cannot estimate the causal effect of a feature on the outcome, i.e., how the outcome will change if the feature is changed while keeping the values of other features unchanged. This is because causal effect estimation requires interventional probabilities. However, many real world…

新的根号 n 一致且数值稳定的高阶影响函数估计量AI 解读

Higher-Order Influence Functions (HOIFs) provide a unified theory for constructing rate-optimal estimators for a large class of low-dimensional (smooth) statistical functionals/parameters (and sometimes even infinite-dimensional functions) that arise in substantive fields including epidemiology, economics, and the social sciences. Since the introduction of HOIFs by Robins et al. (2008), they have been viewed mostly as a theoretical benchmark rather than a useful tool for…