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经济预测中的L2松弛方法AI 解读

We leverage an ensemble of many regressors, the number of which can exceed the sample size, for economic prediction. An underlying latent factor structure implies a dense regression model with highly correlated covariates. We propose the L2-relaxation method for estimating the regression coefficients and extrapolating the out-of-sample (OOS) outcomes. This framework can be applied to policy evaluation using the panel data approach (PDA), where we further establish inference…

约束条件下因果效应的可识别性AI 解读

We study the identification of causal effects in the presence of different types of constraints (e.g., logical constraints) in addition to the causal graph. These constraints impose restrictions on the models (parameterizations) induced by the causal graph, reducing the set of models considered by the identifiability problem. We formalize the notion of constrained identifiability, which takes a set of constraints as another input to the classical definition of…

分离多个变量之间的共同网络依赖AI 解读

When two variables depend on the same or similar underlying network, their shared network dependence structure can lead to spurious associations. While statistical associations between two variables sampled from interconnected subjects are a common inferential goal across various fields, little research has focused on how to disentangle shared dependence for valid statistical inference. We revisit two different approaches from distinct fields that may address shared network…

预后信息的力量：利用结局信息改进协变量平衡检验AI 解读

Scholars frequently use covariate balance tests to test the validity of natural experiments and related designs. Unfortunately, when measured covariates are unrelated to potential outcomes, balance is uninformative about key identification conditions. We show that balance tests can then lead to erroneous conclusions. To build stronger tests, researchers should identify covariates that are jointly predictive of potential outcomes; formally measure and report covariate…

借助大语言模型发现隐含变量并开展因果发现与推理AI 解读

Revealing hidden causal variables alongside the underlying causal mechanisms is essential to the development of science. Despite the progress in the past decades, existing practice in causal discovery (CD) heavily relies on high-quality measured variables, which are usually given by human experts. In fact, the lack of well-defined high-level variables behind unstructured data has been a longstanding roadblock to a broader real-world application of CD. This procedure can…

条件密度估计的降维及其在高维因果推断中的应用AI 解读

We propose a novel and computationally efficient approach for nonparametric conditional density estimation in high-dimensional settings that achieves dimension reduction without imposing restrictive distributional or functional form assumptions. To uncover the underlying sparsity structure of the data, we develop an innovative conditional dependence measure and a modified cross-validation procedure that enables data-driven variable selection, thereby circumventing the need…

多阶段分层抽样与学生未参与下国际大型测评平均成绩的部分识别AI 解读

International large-scale assessment (ILSA) studies collect information across education systems with the objective of learning about the population-wide distribution of student achievement in the assessment. In this article, we study one of the most fundamental threats that these studies face when justifying the conclusions reached about these distributions: the identification problem that arises from student non-participation during data collection. Recognizing that ILSA…

随机实验异质性处理效应估计的去噪IPW-Lasso方法AI 解读

This paper proposes a new method for estimating conditional average treatment effects (CATE) in randomized experiments. We adopt inverse probability weighting (IPW) for identification; however, IPW-transformed outcomes are known to be noisy, even when true propensity scores are used. To address this issue, we introduce a noise reduction procedure and estimate a linear CATE model using Lasso, achieving both accuracy and interpretability. We theoretically show that denoising…

未知网络下异质性干扰效应的识别与估计AI 解读

Interference--in which a unit's outcome is affected by the treatment of other units--poses significant challenges for the identification and estimation of causal effects. Most existing methods for estimating interference effects assume that the interference networks are known. In many practical settings, this assumption is unrealistic as such networks are typically latent. To address this challenge, we propose a novel framework for identifying and estimating heterogeneous…

隐藏混杂下的预测后验AI 解读

Predicting outcomes in external domains is challenging due to hidden confounders that potentially influence both predictors and outcomes. Well-established methods frequently rely on stringent assumptions, explicit knowledge about the distribution shift across domains, or bias-inducing regularization schemes to enhance generalization. While recent developments in point prediction under hidden confounding attempt to mitigate these shortcomings, they generally do not provide…

空间与时间处理效应边界的统一框架：理论与识别AI 解读

This paper develops a unified theoretical framework for detecting and estimating boundaries in treatment effects across both spatial and temporal dimensions. We formalize the concept of treatment effect boundaries as structural parameters characterizing regime transitions where causal effects cease to operate. Building on reaction-diffusion models of information propagation, we establish conditions under which spatial and temporal boundaries share common dynamics governed by…

利用机器学习估计面板数据连续处理效应：气候应用AI 解读

Economists often estimate continuous treatment effects in panel data using linear two-way fixed effects models (TWFE). When the treatment-outcome relationship is nonlinear, TWFE is misspecifed and potentially biased for the average partial derivative (APD). We develop an automatic double/de-biased machine learning (ADML) estimator that is consistent for the population APD while allowing additive unit fixed effects, nonlinearities, and high dimensional heterogeneity. We prove…

不可对角化矩阵不变子空间的假设检验及网络统计应用AI 解读

We generalise the inference procedure for eigenvectors of symmetrizable matrices of Tyler (1981) to that of invariant and singular subspaces of non-diagonalizable matrices. Wald tests for invariant vectors and $t$-tests for their individual coefficients perform well in simulations, despite the matrix being not symmetric. Using these results, it is now possible to perform inference on network statistics that depend on eigenvectors of non-symmetric adjacency matrices as they…

PrivATE：平均处理效应的差分隐私置信区间AI 解读

The average treatment effect (ATE) is widely used to evaluate the effectiveness of drugs and other medical interventions. In safety-critical applications like medicine, reliable inferences about the ATE typically require valid uncertainty quantification, such as through confidence intervals (CIs). However, estimating treatment effects in these settings often involves sensitive data that must be kept private. In this work, we present PrivATE, a novel machine learning…

断点回归的边界估计：基于成绩与经济需要的助学项目证据AI 解读

In the conventional regression-discontinuity (RD) design, the probability that units receive a treatment changes discontinuously as a function of one covariate exceeding a threshold or cutoff point. This paper studies an extended RD design where assignment rules simultaneously involve two or more continuous covariates. We show that assignment rules with more than one variable allow the estimation of a more comprehensive set of treatment effects, relaxing in a research-driven…

链接部分可观测的团队网络AI 解读

This paper studies a linear production model in team networks with missing links. In the model, heterogeneous workers, represented as nodes, produce jointly and repeatedly within teams, represented as links. Links are omitted when their associated outcome variables fall below a threshold, resulting in partial observability of the network. To address this, I propose a Generalized Method of Moments estimator under normally distributed errors and develop a distribution-free…

因果机器学习的敏感性分析：Booking.com 应用示例AI 解读

Causal Machine Learning has emerged as a powerful tool for flexibly estimating causal effects from observational data in both industry and academia. However, causal inference from observational data relies on untestable assumptions about the data-generating process, such as the absence of unobserved confounders. When these assumptions are violated, causal effect estimates may become biased, undermining the validity of research findings. In these contexts, sensitivity…

利用 Riesz 表示开展双重差分处理效应敏感性分析AI 解读

Difference-in-differences (DiD) is one of the most popular approaches for empirical research in economics, political science, and beyond. Identification in these models is based on the conditional parallel trends assumption: In the absence of treatment, the average outcome of the treated and untreated group are assumed to evolve in parallel over time, conditional on pre-treatment covariates. We introduce a novel approach to sensitivity analysis for DiD models that assesses…

文本因果推断的设计式方案：语言模型会不会过大？AI 解读

Many social science questions ask how linguistic properties causally affect an audience's attitudes and behaviors. Because text properties are often interlinked (e.g., angry reviews use profane language), we must control for possible latent confounding to isolate causal effects. Recent literature proposes adapting large language models (LLMs) to learn latent representations of text that successfully predict both treatment and the outcome. However, because the treatment is a…

生存结局聚类随机试验的目标参数与双重稳健估计AI 解读

Cluster-randomized trials (CRTs) are experimental designs where groups or clusters of participants, rather than the individual participants themselves, are randomized to intervention groups. Analyzing CRT requires distinguishing between treatment effects at the cluster level and the individual level, which requires a clear definition of the estimands under the potential outcomes framework. For analyzing survival outcomes, it is common to assess the treatment effect by…

汇总因果图中的平均受控与平均自然微观直接效应AI 解读

In this paper, we investigate the identifiability of average controlled direct effects and average natural direct effects in causal systems represented by summary causal graphs, which are abstractions of full causal graphs, often used in dynamic systems where cycles and omitted temporal information complicate causal inference. Unlike in the traditional linear setting, where direct effects are typically easier to identify and estimate, non-parametric direct effects, which are…

利用大语言模型直接猜测条件期望以改善因果估计效率AI 解读

We propose a simple yet effective use of LLM-powered AI tools to improve causal estimation. In double machine learning, the accuracy of causal estimates of the effect of a treatment on an outcome in the presence of a high-dimensional confounder depends on the performance of estimators of conditional expectation functions. We show that predictions made by generative models trained on historical data can be used to improve the performance of these estimators relative to…

聚类工具变量模型中多工具与弱工具下的推断AI 解读

Data clustering reduces the effective sample size from the number of observations towards the number of clusters. For instrumental variable models this reduced effective sample size makes the instruments more likely to be weak, in the sense that they contain little information about the endogenous regressor, and many, in the sense that their number is large compared to the sample size. Consequently, weak and many instrument problems for estimators and tests in instrumental…

成交价格截断下的拍卖识别AI 解读

I establish nonparametric identification results in first- and second-price auctions when transaction prices are truncated by a binding reserve price under a range of information structures. When the number of potential bidders is fixed and known across all auctions, if only the transaction price is observed, the bidders' private-value distribution is identified in second-price auctions but not in first-price auctions. Identification in first-price auctions can be achieved…