每日简报

用于评估平均与个体处理效应的随机化型 Z 估计AI 解读

Randomized experiments have been the gold standard for drawing causal inference. The conventional model-based approach has been one of the most popular ways for analyzing treatment effects from randomized experiments, which is often carried through inference for certain model parameters. In this paper, we provide a systematic investigation of model-based analyses for treatment effects under the randomization-based inference framework. This framework does not impose any…

自适应采集数据的离策略估计：在线学习的作用AI 解读

We consider estimation of a linear functional of the treatment effect using adaptively collected data. This task finds a variety of applications including the off-policy evaluation (\textsf{OPE}) in contextual bandits, and estimation of the average treatment effect (\textsf{ATE}) in causal inference. While a certain class of augmented inverse propensity weighting (\textsf{AIPW}) estimators enjoys desirable asymptotic properties including the semi-parametric efficiency, much…

基于实质模型相容多重插补的结果缺失敏感性分析及因果应用AI 解读

When using multiple imputation (MI) for missing data, maintaining compatibility between the imputation model and substantive analysis is important for avoiding bias. For example, some causal inference methods incorporate an outcome model with exposure-confounder interactions that must be reflected in the imputation model. Two approaches for compatible imputation with multivariable missingness have been proposed: Substantive-Model-Compatible Fully Conditional Specification…

泊松网络自回归的贝叶斯混合模型AI 解读

In this paper, we propose a new Bayesian Poisson network autoregression mixture model (PNARM). Our model combines ideas from the models of Dahl 2008, Ren et al. 2024 and Armillotta and Fokianos 2024, as it is motivated by the following aims. We consider the problem of modelling multivariate count time series since they arise in many real-world data sets, but has been studied less than its Gaussian-distributed counterpart (Fokianos 2024). Additionally, we assume that the time…

随机干预、敏感性分析与最优传输AI 解读

Recent methodological research in causal inference has focused on effects of stochastic interventions, which assign treatment randomly, often according to subject-specific covariates. In this work, we demonstrate that the usual notion of stochastic interventions have a surprising property: when there is unmeasured confounding, bounds on their effects do not collapse when the policy approaches the observational regime. As an alternative, we propose to study generalized…

将处理效应估计器表示为加权结局AI 解读

Estimators that weight observed outcomes to form effect estimates have a long tradition. Their outcome weights are widely used in established procedures, such as checking covariate balance, characterizing target populations, or detecting and managing extreme weights. This paper introduces a general framework for deriving such outcome weights. It establishes when and how numerical equivalence between an original estimator representation as moment condition and a unique…

资源配置者决策与地方主体多项活动的动态空间互动模型AI 解读

This paper introduces a novel spatial interaction model to explore the decision-making processes of a resource allocator and local agents, with central and local governments serving as empirical representations. The model captures two key features: (i) resource allocations from the allocator to local agents and the resulting strategic interactions, and (ii) local agents' multiple activities and their interactions. We develop a network game for the micro-foundations of these…

加性非线性与非常数效应模型中工具变量的可检验性AI 解读

We address the issue of the testability of instrumental variables derived from observational data. Most existing testable implications are centered on scenarios where the treatment is a discrete variable, e.g., instrumental inequality (Pearl, 1995), or where the effect is assumed to be constant, e.g., instrumental variables condition based on the principle of independent mechanisms (Burauel, 2023). However, treatments can often be continuous variables, such as drug dosages…

加纳小农玉米种植户的拖拉机服务使用、盈利与采纳决定因素AI 解读

Although tractor services are increasingly used in the Ejura-Sekyedumase Municipality, access remains uneven, and some smallholder maize farmers still rely on labour-intensive production methods. This study investigated the profitability effects and adoption determinants of tractor service utilisation in Ejura-Sekyedumase Municipality, Ashanti Region, Ghana. Cross-sectional data were collected from 359 farmers using multi-stage proportionate random sampling. A multivariate…

利用无标签汇总统计量的半监督推断AI 解读

Semi-supervised inference assumes access to a labeled dataset together with a large unlabeled dataset in which the outcome variable is missing, and it is widely used to improve statistical efficiency and support generalizability across populations. In many modern applications, however, individual-level unlabeled data may not be directly accessible due to privacy restrictions, data-sharing limits, or storage constraints, while summary statistics such as sample means and…

主方案试验：从目标量定义到治疗效应的稳健推断AI 解读

Master protocol trials use a single overarching protocol to evaluate multiple interventions, diseases, or disease subtypes, where individuals are often randomized to different subsets of intervention arms based on individual characteristics, enrollment timing, and intervention availability. While offering increased flexibility, this constrained and non-uniform intervention assignment poses two fundamental inferential challenges: the precise definition of treatment effects…

时变调节效应的选择后推断AI 解读

Causal effect moderation investigates how the effect of interventions (or treatments) on outcome variables changes based on observed characteristics of individuals, known as potential effect moderators. With advances in data collection, datasets containing many observed features as potential moderators have become increasingly common. High-dimensional analyses often lack interpretability, with important moderators masked by noise, while low-dimensional, marginal analyses…

缺失数据模型的因果与反事实视角AI 解读

It is often said that the fundamental problem of causal inference is a missing data problem -- the comparison of responses to two hypothetical treatment assignments is made difficult because for every experimental unit only one potential response is observed. In this paper, we consider the implications of the converse view: that missing data problems are a form of causal inference. We make explicit how the missing data problem of recovering the complete data law from the…

因果机制中间结果检验中的隐含假设AI 解读

Political scientists are increasingly interested in assessing causal mechanisms, or determining not just if a causal effect exists but also why it occurs. Even so, many researchers avoid formal causal mediation analyses due to their stringent assumptions, instead opting to explore causal mechanisms through what we call intermediate outcome tests. These tests estimate the effect of the treatment on one or more mediators and view such effects as suggestive evidence of a causal…

事件研究剖析：假想实验、精确分解与权重诊断AI 解读

In recent decades, event studies have emerged as a central methodology in health and social research for evaluating the causal effects of staggered interventions. In this paper, we analyze event studies from experimental design principles for observational studies, with a focus on information borrowing across measurements. We develop robust weighting estimators that increasingly use more information across units and time periods, justified by increasingly stronger…

匹配估计量的 Bootstrap 一致性AI 解读

In a landmark paper, Abadie and Imbens (2008) showed that the naive bootstrap is inconsistent when applied to nearest neighbor matching estimators of the average treatment effect with a fixed number of matches. Since then, this finding has inspired numerous efforts to address the inconsistency issue, typically by employing alternative bootstrap methods. In contrast, this paper shows that the naive bootstrap is provably consistent for the original matching estimator, provided…

个体福利分析：随机准线性效用、独立性与置信界限AI 解读

We introduce a novel framework for individual-level welfare analysis. It builds on a parametric model for continuous demand with a quasilinear utility function, allowing for heterogeneous coefficients and unobserved individual-good-level preference shocks. We obtain bounds on the individual-level consumer welfare loss at any confidence level due to a hypothetical price increase, solving a scalable optimization problem constrained by a novel confidence set under an…

何时选择混杂调整或工具变量：因果效应估计的比较AI 解读

In observational studies, potential unobserved confounding is a major barrier in isolating the average causal effect (ACE). In these scenarios, two main approaches are often used: confounder adjustment for causality (CAC) and instrumental variable analysis for causation (IVAC). Nevertheless, both are subject to untestable assumptions and, therefore, it may be unclear which assumption violation scenarios one method is superior in terms of mitigating inconsistency for the ACE.…

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…