每日简报

非线性时间序列中的函数值因果影响AI 解读

Causal discovery in time series is increasingly performed using nonlinear machine-learning models, yet the resulting causal relationships are almost always summarized by scalar edge scores. We argue that this practice obscures the true object learned by nonlinear autoregressive models: a state-dependent function whose effect varies across regimes, magnitudes, and contexts. We formalize function-valued causal influence for additive, contribution-decomposable architectures and…

We study nonparametric inference for a continuous-treatment causal dose-response curve and its first derivative under unmeasured confounding, using treatment- and outcome-inducing proxies. We establish a proximal doubly robust pseudo-outcome whose conditional mean given treatment equals the dose-response curve whenever either bridge function is correctly specified. Their (smoothed) efficient influence function representations lead to cross-fitted local-polynomial estimators…

受限因变量模型中可扩展的似然推断AI 解读

Limited dependent variable models are central to empirical economics, but likelihood-based inference is infeasible when likelihoods involve high-dimensional integration over latent variables. This paper proposes Stochastically Estimated Gradient Ascent (SEGA), a scalable estimation approach for limited dependent variable models. Using Fisher's identity, SEGA replaces the intractable likelihood score with an unbiased augmented data score evaluated at a single conditional draw…

IV-LASSO 的工具变量字典与惩罚选择AI 解读

Estimating the first stage of an instrumental variables (IV) model with the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) requires choosing a dictionary of technical instruments and a penalty level. First-order asymptotic theory offers no guidance on these choices, as any consistent implementation yields a structural parameter estimator with the same limiting distribution. In finite samples, however, these choices can have a substantial impact on the resulting…

This paper presents a causal decision framework for list-price elasticities in intermediated retail channels, where estimates are confounded by promotions, competitor moves and shopkeeper pass-through. Rather than forcing a number when the evidence is ambiguous, the system treats abstention (Wait) as an active diagnostic output. Built on Double Machine Learning and conformal prediction, it evaluates whether conditions exist to act on a recommended price or whether…

共同相关效应动态面板模型的自助法推断AI 解读

We study recursive-design wild bootstrap inference for dynamic panel data models with unobserved common factors estimated by Common Correlated Effects. In the large N,T setting, the bootstrap reproduces the biased limiting distribution in pure autoregressive models, but fails to capture all bias and factor-estimation variance components in models with additional regressors, particularly under weak exogeneity. We trace this failure to holding regressors fixed across bootstrap…

Experiments with spillovers create incentives for strategic behavior: when one household member's treatment can affect another, take-up decisions become interdependent. We propose an instrumental-variables framework grounded in game theory, in which take-up is a Nash equilibrium among a small number of agents, and all variables are discrete. Under minimal assumptions, without specifying how equilibria are selected, we derive sharp non-parametric bounds for direct, indirect,…

Traditional machine learning relies on explicit models and domain assumptions, often limiting flexibility and interpretability. We introduce a "model-free" framework of instance-based learning using surprisal (information theoretic uncertainty) to directly analyze and perform inferences from raw data, eliminating distribution modeling, reducing bias, and enabling efficient updates including direct edits and deletion of training data. By quantifying relevance through…

短时间维度异质性面板中的平均效应估计AI 解读

The commonly used two-way fixed effects estimator is biased under correlated heterogeneity and can lead to misleading inference. The mean group estimator proposed by \cite{PesaranSmith1995} is robust to correlated heterogeneity but requires the individual estimators to have second-order moments that could fail if the number of estimated coefficients ($k$) is close to the time dimension ($T$) of the panel. This paper focuses on panels where $T-k$ is mall (including $T=k$),…

We develop inference for complete dyadic samples with spatial dependence governed by geographic distances between nodes, covering settings beyond the scope of existing dyadic inference theory. We propose spatial variance and corrected block jackknife estimators consistent in nondegenerate and degenerate Gaussian cases. Under degeneracy, spatial subsampling consistently estimates possibly non-Gaussian limits. Combining the jackknife with subsampling yields the max…

Predict-then-optimize methods learn a mapping from features to unknown edge costs. They then solve the shortest-path problem on the predicted costs. We study a feature-free alternative for the case where the decision-maker observes many noisy cost vectors on a fixed network. The cost vectors are denoised by an eigenvalue decomposition (PCA) of their covariance matrix. Dijkstra's algorithm then runs on the result. We test this on the $5\times5$ grid of \citet{elmachtoub2022},…