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Doubly robust matching estimators for high dimensional confounding adjustment

Author

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  • Joseph Antonelli
  • Matthew Cefalu
  • Nathan Palmer
  • Denis Agniel

Abstract

Valid estimation of treatment effects from observational data requires proper control of confounding. If the number of covariates is large relative to the number of observations, then controlling for all available covariates is infeasible. In cases where a sparsity condition holds, variable selection or penalization can reduce the dimension of the covariate space in a manner that allows for valid estimation of treatment effects. In this article, we propose matching on both the estimated propensity score and the estimated prognostic scores when the number of covariates is large relative to the number of observations. We derive asymptotic results for the matching estimator and show that it is doubly robust in the sense that only one of the two score models need be correct to obtain a consistent estimator. We show via simulation its effectiveness in controlling for confounding and highlight its potential to address nonlinear confounding. Finally, we apply the proposed procedure to analyze the effect of gender on prescription opioid use using insurance claims data.

Suggested Citation

  • Joseph Antonelli & Matthew Cefalu & Nathan Palmer & Denis Agniel, 2018. "Doubly robust matching estimators for high dimensional confounding adjustment," Biometrics, The International Biometric Society, vol. 74(4), pages 1171-1179, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:biomet:v:74:y:2018:i:4:p:1171-1179
    DOI: 10.1111/biom.12887
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    Cited by:

    1. Goller, Daniel & Lechner, Michael & Moczall, Andreas & Wolff, Joachim, 2020. "Does the estimation of the propensity score by machine learning improve matching estimation? The case of Germany's programmes for long term unemployed," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    2. Seonho Shin, 2022. "Evaluating the Effect of the Matching Grant Program for Refugees: An Observational Study Using Matching, Weighting, and the Mantel-Haenszel Test," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 103-133, March.
    3. Shu Yang & Yunshu Zhang, 2023. "Multiply robust matching estimators of average and quantile treatment effects," Scandinavian Journal of Statistics, Danish Society for Theoretical Statistics;Finnish Statistical Society;Norwegian Statistical Association;Swedish Statistical Association, vol. 50(1), pages 235-265, March.
    4. Heejun Shin & Joseph Antonelli, 2023. "Improved inference for doubly robust estimators of heterogeneous treatment effects," Biometrics, The International Biometric Society, vol. 79(4), pages 3140-3152, December.
    5. Joseph Antonelli & Georgia Papadogeorgou & Francesca Dominici, 2022. "Causal inference in high dimensions: A marriage between Bayesian modeling and good frequentist properties," Biometrics, The International Biometric Society, vol. 78(1), pages 100-114, March.
    6. Agboola, Oluwagbenga David & Yu, Han, 2023. "Neighborhood-based cross fitting approach to treatment effects with high-dimensional data," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).

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