IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2110.05225.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

$\beta$-Intact-VAE: Identifying and Estimating Causal Effects under Limited Overlap

Author

Listed:
  • Pengzhou Wu
  • Kenji Fukumizu

Abstract

As an important problem in causal inference, we discuss the identification and estimation of treatment effects (TEs) under limited overlap; that is, when subjects with certain features belong to a single treatment group. We use a latent variable to model a prognostic score which is widely used in biostatistics and sufficient for TEs; i.e., we build a generative prognostic model. We prove that the latent variable recovers a prognostic score, and the model identifies individualized treatment effects. The model is then learned as \beta-Intact-VAE--a new type of variational autoencoder (VAE). We derive the TE error bounds that enable representations balanced for treatment groups conditioned on individualized features. The proposed method is compared with recent methods using (semi-)synthetic datasets.

Suggested Citation

  • Pengzhou Wu & Kenji Fukumizu, 2021. "$\beta$-Intact-VAE: Identifying and Estimating Causal Effects under Limited Overlap," Papers 2110.05225, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2110.05225
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2110.05225
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Halbert White & Karim Chalak, 2013. "Identification and Identification Failure for Treatment Effects Using Structural Systems," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(3), pages 273-317, November.
    2. Denis Chetverikov & Daniel Wilhelm, 2017. "Nonparametric Instrumental Variable Estimation Under Monotonicity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 85, pages 1303-1320, July.
    3. Denis Chetverikov & Daniel Wilhelm, 2017. "Nonparametric instrumental variable estimation under monotonicity," CeMMAP working papers 14/17, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    4. Stefan Wager & Susan Athey, 2018. "Estimation and Inference of Heterogeneous Treatment Effects using Random Forests," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 113(523), pages 1228-1242, July.
    5. Denis Chetverikov & Dongwoo Kim & Daniel Wilhelm, 2018. "Nonparametric instrumental-variable estimation," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 18(4), pages 937-950, December.
    6. St'ephane Bonhomme & Martin Weidner, 2019. "Posterior Average Effects," Papers 1906.06360, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2021.
    7. Arthur Lewbel, 2019. "The Identification Zoo: Meanings of Identification in Econometrics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 57(4), pages 835-903, December.
    8. Farrell, Max H., 2015. "Robust inference on average treatment effects with possibly more covariates than observations," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 189(1), pages 1-23.
    9. S Yang & P Ding, 2018. "Asymptotic inference of causal effects with observational studies trimmed by the estimated propensity scores," Biometrika, Biometrika Trust, vol. 105(2), pages 487-493.
    10. Jason Abrevaya & Yu-Chin Hsu & Robert P. Lieli, 2015. "Estimating Conditional Average Treatment Effects," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(4), pages 485-505, October.
    11. V. Chernozhukov & C. Hansen, 2013. "Quantile Models with Endogeneity," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 5(1), pages 57-81, May.
    12. Timothy B. Armstrong & Michal Kolesár, 2021. "Finite‐Sample Optimal Estimation and Inference on Average Treatment Effects Under Unconfoundedness," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(3), pages 1141-1177, May.
    13. Ming-Yueh Huang & Kwun Chuen Gary Chan, 2017. "Joint sufficient dimension reduction and estimation of conditional and average treatment effects," Biometrika, Biometrika Trust, vol. 104(3), pages 583-596.
    14. Wei Luo & Yeying Zhu & Debashis Ghosh, 2017. "On estimating regression-based causal effects using sufficient dimension reduction," Biometrika, Biometrika Trust, vol. 104(1), pages 51-65.
    15. Gan, Li & Li, Qi, 2016. "Efficiency of thin and thick markets," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 192(1), pages 40-54.
    16. Han Hong & Michael P Leung & Jessie Li, 2020. "Inference on finite-population treatment effects under limited overlap," The Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 23(1), pages 32-47.
    17. Ben B. Hansen, 2008. "The prognostic analogue of the propensity score," Biometrika, Biometrika Trust, vol. 95(2), pages 481-488.
    18. Donald B. Rubin, 2005. "Causal Inference Using Potential Outcomes: Design, Modeling, Decisions," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 100, pages 322-331, March.
    19. Zheng Li & Guannan Liu & Qi Li, 2017. "Nonparametric Knn estimation with monotone constraints," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(6-9), pages 988-1006, October.
    20. Freyberger, Joachim & Horowitz, Joel L., 2015. "Identification and shape restrictions in nonparametric instrumental variables estimation," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 189(1), pages 41-53.
    21. Stéphane Bonhomme & Martin Weidner, 2021. "Posterior average effects," CeMMAP working papers CWP36/21, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alicia Curth & Mihaela van der Schaar, 2023. "In Search of Insights, Not Magic Bullets: Towards Demystification of the Model Selection Dilemma in Heterogeneous Treatment Effect Estimation," Papers 2302.02923, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2023.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ganesh Karapakula, 2023. "Stable Probability Weighting: Large-Sample and Finite-Sample Estimation and Inference Methods for Heterogeneous Causal Effects of Multivalued Treatments Under Limited Overlap," Papers 2301.05703, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2023.
    2. D’Amour, Alexander & Ding, Peng & Feller, Avi & Lei, Lihua & Sekhon, Jasjeet, 2021. "Overlap in observational studies with high-dimensional covariates," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 221(2), pages 644-654.
    3. Phillip Heiler & Michael C. Knaus, 2021. "Effect or Treatment Heterogeneity? Policy Evaluation with Aggregated and Disaggregated Treatments," Papers 2110.01427, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2023.
    4. Victor Chernozhukov & Whitney K. Newey & Andres Santos, 2023. "Constrained Conditional Moment Restriction Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 91(2), pages 709-736, March.
    5. Feng, Sanying & Kong, Kaidi & Kong, Yinfei & Li, Gaorong & Wang, Zhaoliang, 2022. "Statistical inference of heterogeneous treatment effect based on single-index model," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    6. Michael C Knaus & Michael Lechner & Anthony Strittmatter, 2021. "Machine learning estimation of heterogeneous causal effects: Empirical Monte Carlo evidence," The Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 24(1), pages 134-161.
    7. Yiyan Huang & Cheuk Hang Leung & Siyi Wang & Yijun Li & Qi Wu, 2024. "Unveiling the Potential of Robustness in Selecting Conditional Average Treatment Effect Estimators," Papers 2402.18392, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2024.
    8. 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.
    9. Zhexiao Lin & Peng Ding & Fang Han, 2023. "Estimation Based on Nearest Neighbor Matching: From Density Ratio to Average Treatment Effect," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 91(6), pages 2187-2217, November.
    10. Yu Zhu, 2020. "Inference in nonparametric/semiparametric moment equality models with shape restrictions," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 11(2), pages 609-636, May.
    11. Qingliang Fan & Zijian Guo & Ziwei Mei & Cun-Hui Zhang, 2023. "Inference for Nonlinear Endogenous Treatment Effects Accounting for High-Dimensional Covariate Complexity," Papers 2310.08063, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2024.
    12. Manuel Arellano & Stéphane Bonhomme, 2023. "Recovering Latent Variables by Matching," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 118(541), pages 693-706, January.
    13. Harsh Parikh & Cynthia Rudin & Alexander Volfovsky, 2018. "MALTS: Matching After Learning to Stretch," Papers 1811.07415, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2023.
    14. Jad Beyhum & Elia Lapenta & Pascal Lavergne, 2023. "One-step smoothing splines instrumental regression," Papers 2307.14867, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2024.
    15. Nishanth Dikkala & Greg Lewis & Lester Mackey & Vasilis Syrgkanis, 2020. "Minimax Estimation of Conditional Moment Models," Papers 2006.07201, arXiv.org.
    16. Beyhum, Jad & Lapenta, Elia & Lavergne, Pascal, 2023. "One-step nonparametric instrumental regression using smoothing splines," TSE Working Papers 23-1467, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    17. Anupriya, & Bansal, Prateek & Graham, Daniel J., 2023. "Congestion in cities: Can road capacity expansions provide a solution?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    18. Giovanni Compiani, 2022. "Market counterfactuals and the specification of multiproduct demand: A nonparametric approach," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(2), pages 545-591, May.
    19. Michael Lechner & Jana Mareckova, 2024. "Comprehensive Causal Machine Learning," Papers 2405.10198, arXiv.org.
    20. Anupriya, & Graham, Daniel J. & Bansal, Prateek & Hörcher, Daniel & Anderson, Richard, 2023. "Optimal congestion control strategies for near-capacity urban metros: Informing intervention via fundamental diagrams," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 609(C).

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2110.05225. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.