IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2211.12004.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Contextual Bandits in a Survey Experiment on Charitable Giving: Within-Experiment Outcomes versus Policy Learning

Author

Listed:
  • Susan Athey
  • Undral Byambadalai
  • Vitor Hadad
  • Sanath Kumar Krishnamurthy
  • Weiwen Leung
  • Joseph Jay Williams

Abstract

We design and implement an adaptive experiment (a ``contextual bandit'') to learn a targeted treatment assignment policy, where the goal is to use a participant's survey responses to determine which charity to expose them to in a donation solicitation. The design balances two competing objectives: optimizing the outcomes for the subjects in the experiment (``cumulative regret minimization'') and gathering data that will be most useful for policy learning, that is, for learning an assignment rule that will maximize welfare if used after the experiment (``simple regret minimization''). We evaluate alternative experimental designs by collecting pilot data and then conducting a simulation study. Next, we implement our selected algorithm. Finally, we perform a second simulation study anchored to the collected data that evaluates the benefits of the algorithm we chose. Our first result is that the value of a learned policy in this setting is higher when data is collected via a uniform randomization rather than collected adaptively using standard cumulative regret minimization or policy learning algorithms. We propose a simple heuristic for adaptive experimentation that improves upon uniform randomization from the perspective of policy learning at the expense of increasing cumulative regret relative to alternative bandit algorithms. The heuristic modifies an existing contextual bandit algorithm by (i) imposing a lower bound on assignment probabilities that decay slowly so that no arm is discarded too quickly, and (ii) after adaptively collecting data, restricting policy learning to select from arms where sufficient data has been gathered.

Suggested Citation

  • Susan Athey & Undral Byambadalai & Vitor Hadad & Sanath Kumar Krishnamurthy & Weiwen Leung & Joseph Jay Williams, 2022. "Contextual Bandits in a Survey Experiment on Charitable Giving: Within-Experiment Outcomes versus Policy Learning," Papers 2211.12004, arXiv.org.
  • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2211.12004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2211.12004
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Krishnamurthy, Sanath Kumar & Hadad, Vitor & Athey, Susan, 2021. "Adapting to Misspecification in Contextual Bandits with Offline Regression Oracles," Research Papers 3951, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    2. A Stefano Caria & Grant Gordon & Maximilian Kasy & Simon Quinn & Soha Osman Shami & Alexander Teytelboym, 2024. "An Adaptive Targeted Field Experiment: Job Search Assistance for Refugees in Jordan," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 22(2), pages 781-836.
    3. Stoye, Jörg, 2009. "Minimax regret treatment choice with finite samples," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 151(1), pages 70-81, July.
    4. Maximilian Kasy & Anja Sautmann, 2021. "Adaptive Treatment Assignment in Experiments for Policy Choice," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(1), pages 113-132, January.
    5. Toru Kitagawa & Aleksey Tetenov, 2018. "Who Should Be Treated? Empirical Welfare Maximization Methods for Treatment Choice," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 86(2), pages 591-616, March.
    6. John A. List, 2011. "The Market for Charitable Giving," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(2), pages 157-180, Spring.
    7. Charles F. Manski, 2004. "Statistical Treatment Rules for Heterogeneous Populations," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(4), pages 1221-1246, July.
    8. Susan Athey & Stefan Wager, 2021. "Policy Learning With Observational Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(1), pages 133-161, January.
    9. Hamsa Bastani & Kimon Drakopoulos & Vishal Gupta & Ioannis Vlachogiannis & Christos Hadjichristodoulou & Pagona Lagiou & Gkikas Magiorkinis & Dimitrios Paraskevis & Sotirios Tsiodras, 2021. "Efficient and targeted COVID-19 border testing via reinforcement learning," Nature, Nature, vol. 599(7883), pages 108-113, November.
    10. Krishnamurthy, Sanath Kumar & Athey, Susan, 2021. "Optimal Model Selection in Contextual Bandits with Many Classes via Offline Oracles," Research Papers 3971, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    11. Liyang Sun, 2021. "Empirical Welfare Maximization with Constraints," Papers 2103.15298, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2024.
    12. Imbens,Guido W. & Rubin,Donald B., 2015. "Causal Inference for Statistics, Social, and Biomedical Sciences," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521885881, January.
    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. Toru Kitagawa & Jeff Rowley, 2024. "Bandit Algorithms for Policy Learning: Methods, Implementation, and Welfare-performance," Papers 2409.00379, arXiv.org.
    2. Toru Kitagawa & Jeff Rowley, 2024. "Bandit algorithms for policy learning: methods, implementation, and welfare-performance," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 75(3), pages 407-447, July.

    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. Yuchen Hu & Henry Zhu & Emma Brunskill & Stefan Wager, 2024. "Minimax-Regret Sample Selection in Randomized Experiments," Papers 2403.01386, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2024.
    2. Kock, Anders Bredahl & Preinerstorfer, David & Veliyev, Bezirgen, 2023. "Treatment recommendation with distributional targets," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 234(2), pages 624-646.
    3. Davide Viviano & Jess Rudder, 2020. "Policy design in experiments with unknown interference," Papers 2011.08174, arXiv.org, revised May 2024.
    4. Toru Kitagawa & Guanyi Wang, 2021. "Who should get vaccinated? Individualized allocation of vaccines over SIR network," CeMMAP working papers CWP28/21, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    5. Kitagawa, Toru & Wang, Guanyi, 2023. "Who should get vaccinated? Individualized allocation of vaccines over SIR network," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 232(1), pages 109-131.
    6. Yuehao Bai & Azeem M. Shaikh & Max Tabord-Meehan, 2024. "A Primer on the Analysis of Randomized Experiments and a Survey of some Recent Advances," Papers 2405.03910, arXiv.org.
    7. Toru Kitagawa & Guanyi Wang, 2023. "Individualized Treatment Allocation in Sequential Network Games," Papers 2302.05747, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2024.
    8. Manski, Charles F., 2023. "Probabilistic prediction for binary treatment choice: With focus on personalized medicine," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 234(2), pages 647-663.
    9. Garbero, Alessandra & Sakos, Grayson & Cerulli, Giovanni, 2023. "Towards data-driven project design: Providing optimal treatment rules for development projects," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    10. Michael Lechner, 2023. "Causal Machine Learning and its use for public policy," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 159(1), pages 1-15, December.
    11. Toru Kitagawa & Hugo Lopez & Jeff Rowley, 2022. "Stochastic Treatment Choice with Empirical Welfare Updating," Papers 2211.01537, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2023.
    12. Susan Athey & Stefan Wager, 2021. "Policy Learning With Observational Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(1), pages 133-161, January.
    13. Shosei Sakaguchi, 2021. "Estimation of Optimal Dynamic Treatment Assignment Rules under Policy Constraints," Papers 2106.05031, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2024.
    14. Henrika Langen & Martin Huber, 2022. "How causal machine learning can leverage marketing strategies: Assessing and improving the performance of a coupon campaign," Papers 2204.10820, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2022.
    15. Tobias Cagala & Ulrich Glogowsky & Johannes Rincke & Anthony Strittmatter, 2021. "Optimal Targeting in Fundraising: A Machine-Learning Approach," Economics working papers 2021-08, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    16. Charles F. Manski, 2021. "Econometrics for Decision Making: Building Foundations Sketched by Haavelmo and Wald," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(6), pages 2827-2853, November.
    17. Toru Kitagawa & Weining Wang & Mengshan Xu, 2022. "Policy Choice in Time Series by Empirical Welfare Maximization," Papers 2205.03970, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2024.
    18. Augustine Denteh & Helge Liebert, 2022. "Who Increases Emergency Department Use? New Insights from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment," Papers 2201.07072, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2023.
    19. Yu-Chang Chen & Haitian Xie, 2022. "Personalized Subsidy Rules," Papers 2202.13545, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2022.
    20. Alejandro Sanchez-Becerra, 2023. "Robust inference for the treatment effect variance in experiments using machine learning," Papers 2306.03363, arXiv.org.

    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:2211.12004. 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.