每日简报

非线性世界中的动态因果效应：稳健解释与识别隐患AI 解读

Applied macroeconomists frequently use impulse response estimators motivated by linear models. We study whether the estimands of such procedures have a causal interpretation when the true data generating process is in fact nonlinear. We show that vector autoregressions and linear local projections onto observed shocks or proxies identify weighted averages of causal effects regardless of the extent of nonlinearities. By contrast, identification approaches that exploit…

自适应试验设计的置信区间之一：方法综述AI 解读

Regulatory guidance notes the need for caution in the interpretation of confidence intervals (CIs) constructed during and after an adaptive clinical trial. Conventional CIs of the treatment effects are prone to undercoverage (as well as other undesirable properties) in many adaptive designs, because they do not take into account the potential and realised trial adaptations. This paper is the first in a two-part series that explores CIs for adaptive trials. It provides a…

自适应试验设计的置信区间之二：案例研究与实践指南AI 解读

In adaptive clinical trials, the conventional confidence interval (CI) for a treatment effect is prone to undesirable properties such as undercoverage and potential inconsistency with the final hypothesis testing decision. Accordingly, as is stated in recent regulatory guidance on adaptive designs, there is the need for caution in the interpretation of CIs constructed during and after an adaptive clinical trial. However, it may be unclear which of the available CIs in the…

灵活匹配设计下观察性研究的敏感性分析AI 解读

Observational studies provide invaluable opportunities to draw causal inference, but they may suffer from biases due to pretreatment difference between treated and control units. Matching is a popular approach to reduce observed covariate imbalance. To tackle unmeasured confounding, a sensitivity analysis is often conducted to investigate how robust a causal conclusion is to the strength of unmeasured confounding. For matched observational studies, Rosenbaum proposed a…

语言模型作为因果效应生成器AI 解读

In this work, we present sequence-driven structural causal models (SD-SCMs), a framework for specifying causal models with user-defined structure and language-model-defined mechanisms. We characterize how an SD-SCM enables sampling from observational, interventional, and counterfactual distributions according to the desired causal structure. We then leverage this procedure to propose a new type of benchmark for causal inference methods, generating individual-level…

统一空间混杂处理方法的工具变量框架AI 解读

Studies investigating the causal effects of spatially varying exposures on outcomes often rely on observational and spatially indexed data. A prevalent challenge is unmeasured spatial confounding, where an unobserved spatially varying variable affects both exposure and outcome, leading to biased estimates and invalid confidence intervals. There is a very large literature on spatial statistics that attempts to address unmeasured spatial confounding bias; most of this…

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…

乘性随机波动率驱动随机微分方程的趋势非参数估计AI 解读

We discuss nonparametric estimation of the trend coefficient in models governed by a stochastic differential equation driven by a multiplicative stochastic volatility.

非平稳时间序列对白噪声假设的实质性偏离检测AI 解读

We consider the problem of detecting deviations from a white noise assumption in time series. Our approach differs from the numerous methods proposed for this purpose with respect to two aspects. First, we allow for non-stationary time series. Second, we address the problem that a white noise test, for example checking the residuals of a model fit, is usually not performed because one believes in this hypothesis, but thinks that the white noise hypothesis may be…

乘性随机波动率驱动随机微分方程的线性乘子非参数估计AI 解读

We study the problem of nonparametric estimation of the linear multiplier function $θ(t)$ for processes satisfying stochastic differential equations of the type $$dX_t= θ(t)X_t dt+ ε\; σ_1(t,X_t)σ_2(t,Y_t)dW_t, X_0=x_0, 0 \leq t \leq T$$ where $\{W_t, t\geq 0\}$ is a standard Brownian motion, $\{Y_t, t\geq 0\}$ is a process adapted to the filtration generated by the Brownian motion. We study the problem of estimation of the unknown function $θ(.)$ as $ε\rightarrow 0$ based…

已知有效调整集下高维因果效应估计的 PAC 保证AI 解读

Accurate estimates of causal effects play a key role in decision-making across applications such as healthcare, economics, and operations. In the absence of randomized experiments, a common approach to estimating causal effects uses \textit{covariate adjustment}. In this paper, we study covariate adjustment for discrete distributions from the PAC learning perspective, assuming knowledge of a valid adjustment set $\bZ$, which might be high-dimensional. Our first main result…

MSTest：检验马尔可夫转换模型的 R 软件包AI 解读

We present the R package MSTest, which implements hypothesis testing procedures to identify the number of regimes in Markov switching models. These models have wide-ranging applications in economics, finance, and numerous other fields. The MSTest package includes the Monte Carlo likelihood ratio test procedures proposed by Rodriguez-Rondon and Dufour (2024), the moment-based tests of Dufour and Luger (2017), the parameter stability tests of Carrasco, Hu, and Ploberger…

变异分析中的交互作用检验AI 解读

Relationships of cause and effect are of prime importance for explaining scientific phenomena. Often, rather than just understanding the effects of causes, researchers also wish to understand how a cause $X$ affects an outcome $Y$ mechanistically -- i.e., what are the causal pathways that are activated between $X$ and $Y$. For analyzing such questions, a range of methods has been developed over decades under the rubric of causal mediation analysis. Traditional mediation…

基于左截断右删失数据的反事实生存泛函去偏机器学习AI 解读

Learning causal effects of a binary exposure on time-to-event endpoints can be challenging because survival times may be partially observed due to censoring and systematically biased due to truncation. In this work, we present debiased machine learning-based nonparametric estimators of the joint distribution of a counterfactual survival time and baseline covariates for use when the observed data are subject to covariate-dependent left truncation and right censoring and when…

利用机器学习构建稀疏区间值时间序列模型AI 解读

By treating intervals as inseparable sets, this paper proposes sparse machine learning regressions for high-dimensional interval-valued time series. With LASSO or adaptive LASSO techniques, we develop a penalized minimum distance estimation, which covers point-based estimators are special cases. We establish the consistency and oracle properties of the proposed penalized estimator, regardless of whether the number of predictors is diverging with the sample size. Monte Carlo…

有限混合 Tobit 模型的贝叶斯估计AI 解读

This paper outlines a Bayesian approach to estimate finite mixtures of Tobit models. The method consists of an MCMC approach that combines Gibbs sampling with data augmentation and is simple to implement. I show through simulations that the flexibility provided by this method is especially helpful when censoring is not negligible. In addition, I demonstrate the broad utility of this methodology with applications to a job training program, labor supply, and demand for medical…

货币激励与土地所有者偏好：农地转为可再生能源用途的交叉弹性AI 解读

This study examines the impact of monetary factors on the conversion of farmland to renewable energy generation, specifically solar and wind, in the context of expanding U.S. energy production. We propose a new econometric method that accounts for the diverse circumstances of landowners, including their unordered alternative land use options, non-monetary benefits from farming, and the influence of local regulations. We demonstrate that identifying the cross elasticity of…

纵向结果缺失的微随机试验中因果偏离效应的双重稳健估计AI 解读

Micro-randomized trials (MRTs) are increasingly utilized for optimizing mobile health interventions, with the causal excursion effect (CEE) as a central quantity for evaluating interventions under policies that deviate from the experimental policy. However, MRT often contains missing data due to reasons such as missed self-reports or participants not wearing sensors, which can bias CEE estimation. In this paper, we propose a two-stage, doubly robust estimator for CEE in MRTs…

存在未测量混杂时处理效应估计的联合建模方法AI 解读

Estimating treatment effects using observation data often relies on the assumption of no unmeasured confounders. However, unmeasured confounding variables may exist in many real-world problems. It can lead to a biased estimation without incorporating the unmeasured confounding effect. To address this problem, this paper proposes a new mixed-effects joint modeling approach to identifying and estimating the OR function and the PS function in the presence of unmeasured…

内倾思维型科研工作者心理原型的计量分析与形式化AI 解读

The chronological hierarchy and classification of psychological types of individuals are examined. The anomalous nature of psychological activity in individuals involved in scientific work is highlighted. Certain aspects of the introverted thinking type in scientific activities are analyzed. For the first time, psychological archetypes of scientists with pronounced introversion are postulated in the context of twelve hypotheses about the specifics of professional attributes…

利用新两阶段个体合成控制方法估计非正式照护成本AI 解读

Informal carers provide the majority of care for people living with challenges related to older age, long-term illness, or disability. However, the care they provide often results in a significant income penalty for carers, a factor largely overlooked in the economics literature and policy discourse. Leveraging data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study, this paper provides the first robust causal estimates of the caring income penalty using a novel individual synthetic…

关于回归不连续设计中双重稳健估计量的说明AI 解读

This note introduces a doubly robust (DR) estimator for regression discontinuity (RD) designs. RD designs provide a quasi-experimental framework for estimating treatment effects, where treatment assignment depends on whether a running variable surpasses a predefined cutoff. A common approach in RD estimation is the use of nonparametric regression methods, such as local linear regression. However, the validity of these methods still relies on the consistency of the…

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…

BudgetIV：多数工具变量无效时因果效应的最优部分识别AI 解读

Instrumental variables (IVs) are widely used to estimate causal effects in the presence of unobserved confounding between exposure and outcome. An IV must affect the outcome exclusively through the exposure and be unconfounded with the outcome. We present a framework for relaxing either or both of these strong assumptions with tuneable and interpretable budget constraints. Our algorithm returns a feasible set of causal effects that can be identified exactly given relevant…