每日简报

随机试验中外部对照数据的稳健整合AI 解读

One approach for increasing the efficiency of randomized trials is the use of "external controls" -- individuals who received the control treatment studied in the trial during routine practice or in prior experimental studies. Existing external control methods, however, can be biased if the populations underlying the trial and the external control data are not exchangeable. Here, we characterize a randomization-aware class of treatment effect estimators in the population…

CausalFormer：用于时间因果发现的可解释 TransformerAI 解读

Temporal causal discovery is a crucial task aimed at uncovering the causal relations within time series data. The latest temporal causal discovery methods usually train deep learning models on prediction tasks to uncover the causality between time series. They capture causal relations by analyzing the parameters of some components of the trained models, e.g., attention weights and convolution weights. However, this is an incomplete mapping process from the model parameters…

向量自回归模型中的反事实干预AI 解读

Counterfactual reasoning allows us to explore hypothetical scenarios in order to explain the impacts of our decisions. However, addressing such inquires is impossible without establishing the appropriate mathematical framework. In this work, we introduce the problem of counterfactual reasoning in the context of vector autoregressive (VAR) processes. We also formulate the inference of a causal model as a joint regression task where for inference we use both data with and…

从非干预复杂系统中解析干预型动力因果关系AI 解读

Detecting and quantifying causality is a focal topic in the fields of science, engineering, and interdisciplinary studies. However, causal studies on non-intervention systems attract much attention but remain extremely challenging. Delay-embedding technique provides a promising approach. In this study, we propose a framework named Interventional Dynamical Causality (IntDC) in contrast to the traditional Constructive Dynamical Causality (ConDC). ConDC, including Granger…

多元线性与路径分析模型中基于 Copula 的因果效应估计AI 解读

Regression analysis is one of the most popularly used statistical technique which only measures the direct effect of independent variables on dependent variable. Path analysis looks for both direct and indirect effects of independent variables and may overcome several hurdles allied with regression models. It utilizes one or more structural regression equations in the model which are used to estimate the unknown parameters. The aim of this work is to study the path analysis…

因果响应者检测AI 解读

We introduce the causal responders detection (CARD), a novel method for responder analysis that identifies treated subjects who significantly respond to a treatment. Leveraging recent advances in conformal prediction, CARD employs machine learning techniques to accurately identify responders while controlling the false discovery rate in finite sample sizes. Additionally, we incorporate a propensity score adjustment to mitigate bias arising from non-random treatment…

利用时间结构改善因果发现的有限样本表现AI 解读

Methods of causal discovery aim to identify causal structures in a data driven way. Existing algorithms are known to be unstable and sensitive to statistical errors, and are therefore rarely used with biomedical or epidemiological data. We present an algorithm that efficiently exploits temporal structure, so-called tiered background knowledge, for estimating causal structures. Tiered background knowledge is readily available from, e.g., cohort or registry data. When used…

序列数据中选择结构的检测与识别AI 解读

We argue that the selective inclusion of data points based on latent objectives is common in practical situations, such as music sequences. Since this selection process often distorts statistical analysis, previous work primarily views it as a bias to be corrected and proposes various methods to mitigate its effect. However, while controlling this bias is crucial, selection also offers an opportunity to provide a deeper insight into the hidden generation process, as it is a…

分布因果效应的工具变量估计AI 解读

Estimating the causal effect of a treatment on the entire response distribution is an important yet challenging task. For instance, one might be interested in how a pension plan affects not only the average savings among all individuals but also how it affects the entire savings distribution. While sufficiently large randomized studies can be used to estimate such distributional causal effects, they are often either not feasible in practice or involve non-compliance. A…

加权因果分解的校准敏感性分析AI 解读

Disparities in health or well-being experienced by minority groups can be difficult to study using the traditional exposure-outcome paradigm in causal inference, since potential outcomes in variables such as race or sexual minority status are challenging to interpret. Causal decomposition analysis addresses this gap by positing causal effects on disparities under interventions to other, intervenable exposures that may play a mediating role in the disparity. While invoking…

用于因果效应估计的组合式模型AI 解读

Many real-world systems can be usefully represented as sets of interacting components. Examples include computational systems, such as query processors and compilers, natural systems, such as cells and ecosystems, and social systems, such as families and organizations. However, current approaches to estimating potential outcomes and causal effects typically treat such systems as single units, represent them with a fixed set of variables, and assume a homogeneous…

死亡截断下利用纳入生存信息的分位数估计观测数据处理效应AI 解读

The issue of "truncation by death" commonly arises in clinical research: subjects may die before their follow-up assessment, resulting in undefined clinical outcomes. To address this issue, we focus on survival-incorporated quantiles -- quantiles of a composite outcome combining death and clinical outcomes -- to summarize the effect of treatment. Using inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW), we propose an estimator for survival-incorporated quantiles from…

测地空间中的因果推断AI 解读

Adjusting for confounding and imbalance when establishing statistical relationships is an increasingly important task, and causal inference methods have emerged as the most popular tool to achieve this. Existing methodology has been developed primarily for outcomes that lie in Euclidean spaces. We introduce here a general framework for causal inference when outcomes reside in general geodesic metric spaces, where we draw on a novel geodesic calculus that facilitates scalar…

观察性研究中处理效应估计的差异性回忆偏差AI 解读

Observational studies are frequently used to estimate the effect of an exposure or treatment on an outcome. To obtain an unbiased estimate of the treatment effect, it is crucial to measure the exposure accurately. A common type of exposure misclassification is recall bias, which occurs in retrospective cohort studies when study subjects may inaccurately recall their past exposure. Particularly challenging is differential recall bias in the context of self-reported binary…

含时变协变量的双重差分AI 解读

This paper considers identification and estimation of causal effect parameters from participating in a binary treatment in a difference in differences (DID) setup when the parallel trends assumption holds after conditioning on observed covariates. Relative to existing work in the econometrics literature, we consider the case where the value of covariates can change over time and, potentially, where participating in the treatment can affect the covariates themselves. We…

纵向与面板数据的因果模型：综述AI 解读

In this survey we discuss the recent causal panel data literature. This recent literature has focused on credibly estimating causal effects of binary interventions in settings with longitudinal data, emphasizing practical advice for empirical researchers. It pays particular attention to heterogeneity in the causal effects, often in situations where few units are treated and with particular structures on the assignment pattern. The literature has extended earlier work on…

稳定的可微分因果发现AI 解读

Inferring causal relationships as directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) is an important but challenging problem. Differentiable Causal Discovery (DCD) is a promising approach to this problem, framing the search as a continuous optimization. But existing DCD methods are numerically unstable, with poor performance beyond tens of variables. In this paper, we propose Stable Differentiable Causal Discovery (SDCD), a new method that improves previous DCD methods in two ways: (1) It…

随机区组与再随机化实验中 Lasso 调整的设计型理论AI 解读

Blocking, a special case of rerandomization, is routinely implemented in the design stage of randomized experiments to balance the baseline covariates. This study proposes a regression adjustment method based on the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso) to efficiently estimate the average treatment effect in randomized block experiments with high-dimensional covariates. We derive the asymptotic properties of the proposed estimator and outline the conditions…

随机实验中的最小最大遗憾样本选择AI 解读

Randomized controlled trials are often run in settings with many subpopulations that may have differential benefits from the treatment being evaluated. We consider the problem of sample selection, i.e., whom to enroll in a randomized trial, such as to optimize welfare in a heterogeneous population. We formalize this problem within the minimax-regret framework, and derive optimal sample-selection schemes under a variety of conditions. Using data from a COVID-19 vaccine trial,…

多维回归不连续设计的操纵检验AI 解读

The causal inference model proposed by Lee (2008) for the regression discontinuity design (RDD) relies on assumptions that imply the continuity of the density of the assignment (running) variable. The test for this implication is commonly referred to as the manipulation test and is regularly reported in applied research to strengthen the design's validity. The multidimensional RDD (MRDD) extends the RDD to contexts where treatment assignment depends on several running…

无混杂与共同趋势的联合检验AI 解读

This paper introduces an overidentification test of two alternative assumptions to identify the average treatment effect on the treated in a two-period panel data setting: unconfoundedness and common trends. Under the unconfoundedness assumption, treatment assignment and post-treatment outcomes are independent, conditional on control variables and pre-treatment outcomes, which motivates including pre-treatment outcomes in the set of controls. Conversely, under the common…

配对随机实验与不完全依从下的统计推断AI 解读

This paper studies inference for the local average treatment effect in randomized controlled trials with imperfect compliance where treatment status is determined according to "matched pairs." By "matched pairs," we mean that units are sampled i.i.d. from the population of interest, paired according to observed, baseline covariates and finally, within each pair, one unit is selected at random for treatment. Under weak assumptions governing the quality of the pairings, we…

利用事后分层改善工具变量估计AI 解读

Experiments studying get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts estimate the causal effect of various mobilization efforts on voter turnout. However, there is often substantial noncompliance in these studies. A usual approach is to use an instrumental variable (IV) analysis to estimate impacts for compliers, here being those actually contacted by the investigators. Unfortunately, popular IV estimators can be unstable in studies with a small fraction of compliers. We explore…

因果零假设检验的统计稳健性与因果稳健性AI 解读

Prior work applying semiparametric theory to causal inference has primarily focused on deriving estimators that exhibit statistical robustness under a prespecified causal model that permits identification of a desired causal parameter. However, a fundamental challenge is correct specification of such a model, which usually involves making untestable assumptions. Evidence factors is an approach to combining hypothesis tests of a common causal null hypothesis under two or more…