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对从文本中学习的结局进行因果推断AI 解读

We propose a machine-learning tool that yields causal inference on text in randomized trials. Based on a simple econometric framework in which text may capture outcomes of interest, our procedure addresses three questions: First, is the text affected by the treatment? Second, which outcomes is the effect on? And third, how complete is our description of causal effects? To answer all three questions, our approach uses large language models (LLMs) that suggest systematic…

简单与复杂模拟设计中的蒙特卡洛积分AI 解读

Simulation studies are used to evaluate and compare the properties of statistical methods in controlled experimental settings. In most cases, performing a simulation study requires knowledge of the true value of the parameter, or estimand, of interest. However, in many simulation designs, the true value of the estimand is difficult to compute analytically. Here, we illustrate the use of Monte Carlo integration to compute true estimand values in simple and complex simulation…

用差异效应部分识别处理效应AI 解读

We consider identification and inference for the average treatment effect and heterogeneous treatment effect conditional on observable covariates in the presence of unmeasured confounding. Since point identification of these treatment effects is not achievable without strong assumptions, we obtain bounds on these treatment effects by leveraging differential effects, a tool that allows for using a second treatment to learn the effect of the first treatment. The differential…

病例—病例研究中可归因效应的敏感性分析AI 解读

The case$^2$ study, also referred to as the case-case study design, is a valuable approach for conducting inference for treatment effects. Unlike traditional case-control studies, the case$^2$ design compares treatment in two types of cases with the same disease. A key quantity of interest is the attributable effect, which is the number of cases of disease among treated units which are caused by the treatment. Two key assumptions that are usually made for making inferences…

基于 DML 的经济因果推断：二元与连续处理的 Python 实现AI 解读

This study utilizes a simulated dataset to establish Python code for Double Machine Learning (DML) using Anaconda's Jupyter Notebook and the DML software package from GitHub. The research focuses on causal inference experiments for both binary and continuous treatment variables. The findings reveal that the DML model demonstrates relatively stable performance in calculating the Average Treatment Effect (ATE) and its robustness metrics. However, the study also highlights that…

重构 LiNGAM 的最短路径表述：成对似然比、先验知识与路径枚举AI 解读

Effective causal discovery is essential for learning the causal graph from observational data. The linear non-Gaussian acyclic model (LiNGAM) operates under the assumption of a linear data generating process with non-Gaussian noise in determining the causal graph. Its assumption of unmeasured confounders being absent, however, poses practical limitations. In response, empirical research has shown that the reformulation of LiNGAM as a shortest path problem (LiNGAM-SPP)…

工具变量识别何时不限制潜在结果？AI 解读

Many identification results in instrumental variables (IV) models hold without requiring any restrictions on the distribution of potential outcomes, or how those outcomes are correlated with selection behavior. This enables IV models to allow for arbitrary heterogeneity in treatment effects and the possibility of selection on gains in the outcome. I provide a necessary and sufficient condition for treatment effects to be point identified in a manner that does not restrict…

匹配估计 ≤ 混合估计 ≤ 双重差分估计AI 解读

Since LaLonde's (1986) seminal paper, there has been ongoing interest in estimating treatment effects using pre- and post-intervention data. Scholars have traditionally used experimental benchmarks to evaluate the accuracy of alternative econometric methods, including Matching, Difference-in-Differences (DID), and their hybrid forms (e.g., Heckman et al., 1998b; Dehejia and Wahba, 2002; Smith and Todd, 2005). We revisit these methodologies in the evaluation of job training…

用伪值简化事件发生时间结局的因果中介分析AI 解读

Mediation analysis for survival outcomes is challenging. Most existing methods quantify the treatment effect using the hazard ratio (HR) and attempt to decompose the HR into the direct effect of treatment plus an indirect, or mediated, effect. However, the HR is not expressible as an expectation, which complicates this decomposition, both in terms of estimation and interpretation. Here, we present an alternative approach which leverages pseudo-values to simplify estimation…

医疗成本效果分析中的似不相关贝叶斯加性回归树AI 解读

In recent years, theoretical results and simulation evidence have shown Bayesian additive regression trees to be a highly-effective method for nonparametric regression. Motivated by cost-effectiveness analyses in health economics, where interest lies in jointly modelling the costs of healthcare treatments and the associated health-related quality of life experienced by a patient, we propose a multivariate extension of BART which is applicable in regression analyses with…

平均处理效应的双重稳健贝叶斯推断AI 解读

We propose a double robust Bayesian inference procedure on the average treatment effect (ATE) under unconfoundedness. For our new Bayesian approach, we first adjust the prior distributions of the conditional mean functions, and then correct the posterior distribution of the resulting ATE. Both adjustments make use of pilot estimators motivated by the semiparametric influence function for ATE estimation. We prove asymptotic equivalence of our Bayesian procedure and efficient…

自适应实验设计中更强的 Neyman 遗憾保证AI 解读

We study the design of adaptive, sequential experiments for unbiased average treatment effect (ATE) estimation in the design-based potential outcomes setting. Our goal is to develop adaptive designs offering sublinear Neyman regret, meaning their efficiency must approach that of the hindsight-optimal nonadaptive design. Recent work [Dai et al, 2023] introduced ClipOGD, the first method achieving $\widetilde{O}(\sqrt{T})$ expected Neyman regret under mild conditions. In this…

有序变量的潜在因果推断框架AI 解读

Ordinal variables, such as on the Likert scale, are common in applied research. Yet, existing methods for causal inference tend to target nominal or continuous data. When applied to ordinal data, this fails to account for the inherent ordering or imposes well-defined relative magnitudes. Hence, there is a need for specialised methods to compute interventional effects between ordinal variables while accounting for their ordinality. One potential framework is to presume a…

以重复 A/A 检验评估 A/B 测试中 t 检验的可靠性AI 解读

A/B-tests are a cornerstone of experimental design on the web, with wide-ranging applications and use-cases. The statistical $t$-test comparing differences in means is the most commonly used method for assessing treatment effects, often justified through the Central Limit Theorem (CLT). The CLT ascertains that, as the sample size grows, the sampling distribution of the Average Treatment Effect converges to normality, making the $t$-test valid for sufficiently large sample…

利用多期数据修正失效的回归不连续设计AI 解读

Regression Discontinuity (RD) designs rely on the continuity of potential outcome means at the cutoff, but this assumption often fails when other treatments or policies are implemented at this cutoff. We characterize the bias in sharp and fuzzy RD designs due to violations of continuity, and develop a general identification framework that leverages multiple time periods to estimate local effects on the (un)treated. We extend the framework to settings with carry-over effects…

战略行为主体下的实用表现性政策学习AI 解读

This paper studies the performative policy learning problem, where agents adjust their features in response to a released policy to improve their potential outcomes, inducing an endogenous distribution shift. There has been growing interest in training machine learning models in strategic environments, including strategic classification and performative prediction. However, existing approaches often rely on restrictive parametric assumptions: micro-level utility models in…

通过潜在不变因果机制实现时间序列领域适应AI 解读

Time series domain adaptation aims to transfer the complex temporal dependence from the labeled source domain to the unlabeled target domain. Recent advances leverage the stable causal mechanism over observed variables to model the domain-invariant temporal dependence. However, modeling precise causal structures in high-dimensional data, such as videos, remains challenging. Additionally, direct causal edges may not exist among observed variables (e.g., pixels). These…

处理时变混杂的灵活贝叶斯生存分析 g 公式AI 解读

In longitudinal observational studies with time-to-event outcomes, a common objective in causal analysis is to estimate the causal survival curve under hypothetical intervention scenarios. The g-formula is a useful tool for this analysis. To enhance the traditional parametric g-formula, we developed an alternative g-formula estimator, which incorporates the Bayesian Additive Regression Trees (BART) into the modeling of the time-evolving generative components, aiming to…

随机实验协变量平衡的高斯化设计优化AI 解读

Achieving covariate balance in randomized experiments enhances the precision of treatment effect estimation. However, existing methods often require heuristic adjustments based on domain knowledge and are primarily developed for binary treatments. This paper presents Gaussianized Design Optimization, a novel framework for optimally balancing covariates in experimental design. The core idea is to Gaussianize the treatment assignments: we model treatments as transformations of…

序贯决策、自适应实验与批次赌博机的渐近表示AI 解读

We develop asymptotic approximations that can be applied to sequential estimation and inference problems, adaptive randomized controlled trials, and related settings. In batched adaptive settings where the decision at one stage can affect the observation of variables in later stages, our asymptotic representation characterizes all limit distributions attainable through a joint choice of an adaptive design rule and statistics applied to the adaptively generated data. This…

对不平等敏感的最优处理分配AI 解读

The egalitarian equivalent, $ee$, of a societal distribution of outcomes with mean $m$ is the outcome level such that the evaluator is indifferent between the distribution of outcomes and a society in which everyone obtains an outcome of $ee$. For an inequality averse evaluator, $ee < m$. In this paper, I extend the optimal treatment choice framework in Manski (2024) to the case where the welfare evaluation is made using egalitarian equivalent measures, and derive optimal…

孟德尔随机化中的异常工具变量检测AI 解读

Mendelian Randomisation (MR) uses genetic variants as instrumental variables to infer causal effects of exposures on an outcome. One key assumption of MR is that the genetic variants used as instrumental variables are independent of the outcome conditional on the risk factor and unobserved confounders. Violations of this assumption, i.e. the effect of the instrumental variables on the outcome through a path other than the risk factor included in the model (which can be…

时序机制区间的因果结构学习AI 解读

Understanding causal relationships in multivariate time series is essential for predicting and controlling dynamic systems in fields like economics, neuroscience, and climate science. However, existing causal discovery methods often assume stationarity, limiting their effectiveness when time series consist of sequential regimes, consecutive temporal segments with unknown boundaries and changing causal structures. In this work, we firstly introduce a framework to describe and…

用平衡权重整合随机试验与外部对照数据：估计目标与估计量比较AI 解读

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) face inherent limitations, such as ethical or resource constraints, which lead to a limited number of study participants. To address these limitations, recent research endeavors have sought to incorporate external control (EC) data, such as historical trial data or real-world data, with RCT data in treatment effect evaluation. This integration introduces unique questions regarding target population specification, causal estimand, and…