每日简报

熵正则化逆强化学习的统计分析AI 解读

Inverse reinforcement learning aims to infer the reward function that explains expert behavior observed through trajectories of state--action pairs. A long-standing difficulty in classical IRL is the non-uniqueness of the recovered reward: many reward functions can induce the same optimal policy, rendering the inverse problem ill-posed. In this paper, we develop a statistical framework for Inverse Entropy-regularized Reinforcement Learning that resolves this ambiguity by…

高效稀疏典型相关分析AI 解读

In high-dimensional settings, Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) often fails, and existing sparse methods force an untenable choice between computational speed and statistical rigor. This work introduces a fast and provably consistent sparse CCA algorithm (ECCAR) that resolves this trade-off. We formulate CCA as a high-dimensional reduced-rank regression problem, which allows us to derive consistent estimators with high-probability error bounds without relying on…

稀疏广义线性模型的 Bernstein–von Mises 定理AI 解读

We establish an oracle Bernstein-von Mises theorem for high-dimensional sparse generalized linear models under an outcome-independent spike-and-slab prior. The posterior consistently recovers the true active set and converges in total variation to the Gaussian law that would arise if this set were known in advance, even when the active dimension grows. The result holds for both ordinary and fractional posteriors, the latter with the expected variance inflation under…

分位数回归的分布式选择后推断AI 解读

We propose a distributed selective inference framework tailored for high-dimensional quantile regression. To enable valid post-selection inference in this context, we address the computational challenge posed by the non-smooth quantile loss via a response-surrogation strategy. This strategy transforms the problem into a penalized least-squares formulation, thereby facilitating distributed selective inference. For valid post-selection inference, a randomized procedure is…

通过 Q 函数差的正交估计构建以决策为中心的状态抽象AI 解读

Offline reinforcement learning enables evaluation and optimization of sequential decisions from historical data, when it is not possible to deploy new policies online due to safety, cost, and other concerns. Big data advances enable rich state information, but may naively include reward- and action- irrelevant dynamics that are ultimately unnecessary for learning optimal actions. We introduce state abstractions that target preservation of the difference-of-Q functions, and…

短定价面板中的跨设计不确定性：推断与识别AI 解读

Short observational pricing panels often contain many data points but very few actual price changes. This paper shows that this sparsity creates a hidden source of error that standard statistical methods miss. When estimating price effects, most of the uncertainty does not come from sample size within a panel, but from the specific history of price movements observed. Standard confidence intervals fail because they only measure variation within the panel, ignoring this…

预测误差为何不足以评价因果估计中的辅助函数预测AI 解读

Prediction error is widely used to evaluate nuisance-function estimators in causal inference, but its relationship with causal estimator performance may differ across performance measures. We studied this question in a partially linear model using Monte Carlo simulations. We compared ordinary least squares (OLS), generalized additive models (GAMs), XGBoost, and Double Machine Learning with XGBoost (DML-XGBoost), evaluating nuisance-function prediction error, bias, RMSE, and…

通过等变神经网络实现相关误差离散选择模型的摊销推断AI 解读

Discrete choice models are fundamental tools in management science, economics, and marketing for understanding and predicting decision-making. Logit-based models are dominant in applied work, largely due to their convenient closed-form expressions for choice probabilities. However, they impose restrictive assumptions on the stochastic utility component, constraining our ability to capture realistic substitution patterns. We propose an amortized inference approach that relies…

Softmax 混合模型中的 EM 算法与矩估计AI 解读

Softmax Mixture Models (SMMs) are discrete $K$-component mixture models for the probabilities of selecting one of $p$ candidate feature vectors $X_1,\ldots,X_p\in\mathbb{R}^L$ in heterogeneous populations and are widely used in econometrics and scientific applications. Related softmax mixture mechanisms also appear in modern LLM architectures. We provide a theoretical and methodological study of SMMs, focusing on the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm and the Method of…

贝叶斯网络通常满足忠实性吗？AI 解读

Faithfulness is a common assumption in causal inference, often motivated by the fact that the faithful parameters of linear Gaussian and discrete Bayesian networks are typical, and the folklore belief that this should also hold for other classes of Bayesian networks. We address this open question by showing that among all Bayesian networks over a given DAG, the faithful Bayesian networks are indeed `typical': they constitute a dense, open set with respect to the total…

存在无效工具变量时多重处理效应的识别与稳健推断AI 解读

The instrumental variable (IV) method is widely used to infer causal effects in observational studies with unmeasured confounding, but invalid instruments can compromise both population identification and finite-sample inference. This paper studies linear IV models with multiple endogenous treatments and possibly invalid instruments. Identification of multiple effects is more delicate than in the single-treatment setting because a single instrument no longer identifies a…

因果数据融合中的聚类与剪枝AI 解读

Data fusion, the process of combining observational and experimental data, can enable the identification of causal effects that would otherwise remain non-identifiable. Although identification algorithms have been developed for specific scenarios, do-calculus remains the only general-purpose tool for causal data fusion, particularly when variables are present in some data sources but not others. However, approaches based on do-calculus may encounter computational challenges…

交错采用设计下多层面板线性泛函的估计AI 解读

We study the estimation of bilinear forms from noisy, partially observed multilayer data. The signal follows a Tucker2 model, with shared unit and time factors across tensor layers and slice-specific cores. The missingness pattern is structured and motivated by staggered adoption designs, which are common in causal inference and related applications. We first analyze the four-block missingness pattern, the basic building block for general staggered adoption, and propose a…

二元选择模型的简便高功效诊断检验AI 解读

Conventional binary choice models, such as probit and logit, impose thin-tailed errors, and that tail determines whether the parameters of a binary choice model can be estimated at the regular rate. We test the restriction on observables, asking whether the conditional choice probability decays at a polynomial rate in a covariate. Identification of tail heaviness requires no independence, no linear index, and no homoskedasticity. The test is simple to implement and attains…

具有潜在转移异质性的离散结果事件研究设计AI 解读

We develop an identification strategy for average treatment effects on the treated (ATT) in panel data with discrete outcomes. For such outcomes, the parallel trends assumption underlying difference-in-differences (DiD) fails in three distinct ways: mean reversion generates divergent trends when groups differ at baseline, counterfactual probabilities can leave the unit interval, and no single trend is well defined for multi-category outcomes. We replace parallel trends with…

通过贝叶斯非参数方法研究复合决策与经验贝叶斯AI 解读

We study compound decision theory from a nonparametric Bayesian perspective, with particular emphasis on their relationship to empirical Bayes (EB) procedures. Motivated by the sharp risk guarantees available for EB procedures based on the nonparametric maximum likelihood estimator (NPMLE), we investigate whether analogous guarantees can be established for fully Bayesian decision rules. In a class of Gaussian compound decision problems, we show that the fully Bayesian…

均衡模型中的固定总体因果推断AI 解读

In contrast to problems of interference in (exogenous) treatments, models of interference in unit-specific (endogenous) outcomes do not usually produce a reduced-form representation where outcomes depend on other units' treatment status only at a short network distance, or only through a known exposure mapping. This remains true if the structural mechanism depends on outcomes of peers only at a short network distance, or through a known exposure mapping. In this paper, we…

离散抽样或时间聚合自回归模型的参数识别与推断AI 解读

I consider an AR($p$) process that is observed every $q$ periods, either as a snapshot (stock variable) or as a sum over the sampling interval (flow variable). I first characterize the resulting ARMA process followed by observables. Under fairly mild assumptions, I then derive the identified set for general lag lengths $p \in \mathbb{N}$ and sampling frequencies $q \in \mathbb{N}$, I bound its cardinality, and I provide an algorithm to compute all candidate points and…

GMM 何时具有 LATE 解释？过度识别工具变量中的权重矩阵与因果含义AI 解读

Under heterogeneous treatment effects, the weighting matrix of overidentified IV-GMM selects the estimand, not just its precision. We characterize the selection exactly: for any parameter-free weighting-matrix map, the GMM estimand is a sum-to-one combination of instrument-specific Wald estimands, with closed-form weights and an exact non-negativity condition; efficient weighting adds a heterogeneity penalty. Continuously updated GMM exits this class through a variance-score…

利用折点与跳点处聚集行为进行部分识别AI 解读

This paper proposes a partial identification approach to using choices around a kink or notch as a means to overcome endogeneity in a general nonparametric choice model. I show that observed choices are informative about the joint distribution of two counterfactual choices, which leads naturally to analyzing bunching using tools from causal inference. I define as the parameter of interest an average treatment effect among bunchers, which nests the traditional elasticity…

遍历基本仿射跳跃扩散中的随机跳跃强度与 Bernstein 密度估计AI 解读

This paper develops a random-effects extension of the ergodic basic affine jump-diffusion (BAJD) model for a population of independent trajectories with individual unobserved jump intensities and common structural parameters. Under continuous-time observation, each intensity is estimated by the empirical jump frequency. We establish the strong consistency and stable mixed-normal limit of this estimator as the observation horizon tends to infinity. The estimated intensities…

存在干扰时的断点回归设计AI 解读

We extend the continuity-based framework to Regression Discontinuity Designs (RDDs) to identify and estimate causal effects under interference when units are connected through a network. Assignment to an "effective treatment," combining the individual treatment and a summary of neighbors' treatments, is determined by the unit's score and those of interfering units, yielding a multiscore RDD with complex, multidimensional boundaries. We characterize these boundaries and…

多处理、多结果与未测混杂下的部分识别AI 解读

Estimating the health effects of multiple air pollutants is a crucial problem in public health, but one that is difficult due to unmeasured confounding bias. Motivated by this issue, we develop a framework for partial identification of causal effects in the presence of unmeasured confounding in settings with multiple treatments and multiple outcomes. Under a factor confounding assumption, we show that joint partial identification regions for multiple estimands can be more…

异质性处理效应下的三重差分设计AI 解读

Triple difference designs have become increasingly popular in empirical economics. The advantage of a triple difference design is that, within a treatment group, it allows another subgroup of the population -- potentially less impacted by the treatment -- to serve as a comparison for the subgroup of interest. While literature on difference-in-differences has discussed heterogeneity in treatment effects between treated and control groups or over time, relatively little…