IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cep/stiecm/619.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Estimating density ratio of marginals to joint: Applications to causal inference

Author

Listed:
  • Yukitoshi Matsushita
  • Taisuke Otsu
  • Keisuke Takahata

Abstract

In various fields of data science, researchers often face problems of estimating the ratios of two probability densities. Particularly in the context of causal inference, the product of marginals for a treatment variable and covariates to their joint density ratio typically emerges in the process of constructing causal effect estimators. This paper applies the general least square density ratio estimation methodology by Kanamori, Hido and Sugiyama (2009) to the product of marginals to joint density ratio, and demonstrates its usefulness particularly for causal inference on continuous treatment effects and dose-response curves. The proposed method is illustrated by a simulation study and an empirical example to investigate the treatment effect of political advertisements in the U.S. presidential campaign data.

Suggested Citation

  • Yukitoshi Matsushita & Taisuke Otsu & Keisuke Takahata, 2022. "Estimating density ratio of marginals to joint: Applications to causal inference," STICERD - Econometrics Paper Series 619, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
  • Handle: RePEc:cep:stiecm:619
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/em/em619.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. J. P. Florens & J. J. Heckman & C. Meghir & E. Vytlacil, 2008. "Identification of Treatment Effects Using Control Functions in Models With Continuous, Endogenous Treatment and Heterogeneous Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 76(5), pages 1191-1206, September.
    2. Whitney K. Newey & Richard J. Smith, 2004. "Higher Order Properties of Gmm and Generalized Empirical Likelihood Estimators," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(1), pages 219-255, January.
    3. Kosuke Imai & David A. van Dyk, 2004. "Causal Inference With General Treatment Regimes: Generalizing the Propensity Score," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 99, pages 854-866, January.
    4. Belloni, Alexandre & Chernozhukov, Victor & Chetverikov, Denis & Kato, Kengo, 2015. "Some new asymptotic theory for least squares series: Pointwise and uniform results," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 186(2), pages 345-366.
    5. Masashi Sugiyama & Taiji Suzuki & Shinichi Nakajima & Hisashi Kashima & Paul Bünau & Motoaki Kawanabe, 2008. "Direct importance estimation for covariate shift adaptation," Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Springer;The Institute of Statistical Mathematics, vol. 60(4), pages 699-746, December.
    6. Xiaohong Chen & Oliver Linton & Ingrid Van Keilegom, 2003. "Estimation of Semiparametric Models when the Criterion Function Is Not Smooth," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(5), pages 1591-1608, September.
    7. Keisuke Hirano & Guido W. Imbens & Geert Ridder, 2003. "Efficient Estimation of Average Treatment Effects Using the Estimated Propensity Score," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(4), pages 1161-1189, July.
    8. Chunrong Ai & Oliver Linton & Kaiji Motegi & Zheng Zhang, 2021. "A unified framework for efficient estimation of general treatment models," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 12(3), pages 779-816, July.
    9. Sean Yiu & Li Su, 2018. "Covariate association eliminating weights: a unified weighting framework for causal effect estimation," Biometrika, Biometrika Trust, vol. 105(3), pages 709-722.
    10. Bryan S. Graham & Cristine Campos De Xavier Pinto & Daniel Egel, 2012. "Inverse Probability Tilting for Moment Condition Models with Missing Data," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(3), pages 1053-1079.
    11. Antonio F. Galvao & Liang Wang, 2015. "Uniformly Semiparametric Efficient Estimation of Treatment Effects With a Continuous Treatment," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 110(512), pages 1528-1542, December.
    12. Guido W. Imbens, 2004. "Nonparametric Estimation of Average Treatment Effects Under Exogeneity: A Review," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(1), pages 4-29, February.
    13. Jinyong Hahn, 1998. "On the Role of the Propensity Score in Efficient Semiparametric Estimation of Average Treatment Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 66(2), pages 315-332, March.
    14. James J. Heckman & Hidehiko Ichimura & Petra Todd, 1998. "Matching As An Econometric Evaluation Estimator," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 65(2), pages 261-294.
    15. Masashi Sugiyama & Taiji Suzuki & Takafumi Kanamori, 2012. "Density-ratio matching under the Bregman divergence: a unified framework of density-ratio estimation," Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Springer;The Institute of Statistical Mathematics, vol. 64(5), pages 1009-1044, October.
    16. Newey, Whitney K., 1997. "Convergence rates and asymptotic normality for series estimators," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 147-168, July.
    17. Alberto Abadie & Guido W. Imbens, 2006. "Large Sample Properties of Matching Estimators for Average Treatment Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(1), pages 235-267, January.
    18. Edward H. Kennedy & Zongming Ma & Matthew D. McHugh & Dylan S. Small, 2017. "Non-parametric methods for doubly robust estimation of continuous treatment effects," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 79(4), pages 1229-1245, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Chunrong Ai & Oliver Linton & Kaiji Motegi & Zheng Zhang, 2021. "A unified framework for efficient estimation of general treatment models," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 12(3), pages 779-816, July.
    2. Huber, Martin, 2019. "An introduction to flexible methods for policy evaluation," FSES Working Papers 504, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Freiburg/Fribourg Switzerland.
    3. Rahul Singh & Liyuan Xu & Arthur Gretton, 2020. "Kernel Methods for Causal Functions: Dose, Heterogeneous, and Incremental Response Curves," Papers 2010.04855, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2022.
    4. Ai, Chunrong & Linton, Oliver & Zhang, Zheng, 2022. "Estimation and inference for the counterfactual distribution and quantile functions in continuous treatment models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 228(1), pages 39-61.
    5. Wei Huang & Oliver Linton & Zheng Zhang, 2021. "A Unified Framework for Specification Tests of Continuous Treatment Effect Models," Papers 2102.08063, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2021.
    6. Difang Huang & Jiti Gao & Tatsushi Oka, 2022. "Semiparametric Single-Index Estimation for Average Treatment Effects," Papers 2206.08503, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2024.
    7. 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.
    8. Cattaneo, Matias D., 2010. "Efficient semiparametric estimation of multi-valued treatment effects under ignorability," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 155(2), pages 138-154, April.
    9. Alejo, Javier & Galvao, Antonio F. & Montes-Rojas, Gabriel, 2018. "Quantile continuous treatment effects," Econometrics and Statistics, Elsevier, vol. 8(C), pages 13-36.
    10. Kitagawa, Toru & Muris, Chris, 2016. "Model averaging in semiparametric estimation of treatment effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 193(1), pages 271-289.
    11. Mammen, Enno & Rothe, Christoph & Schienle, Melanie, 2016. "Semiparametric Estimation With Generated Covariates," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 32(5), pages 1140-1177, October.
    12. Carlos A. Flores & Oscar A. Mitnik, 2009. "Evaluating Nonexperimental Estimators for Multiple Treatments: Evidence from Experimental Data," Working Papers 2010-10, University of Miami, Department of Economics.
    13. Toru Kitagawa & Chris Muris, 2013. "Covariate selection and model averaging in semiparametric estimation of treatment effects," CeMMAP working papers 61/13, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    14. 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.
    15. repec:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2014-043 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Taisuke Otsu & Mengshan Xu, 2022. "Isotonic propensity score matching," STICERD - Econometrics Paper Series 623, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    17. Huber, Martin & Lechner, Michael & Wunsch, Conny, 2013. "The performance of estimators based on the propensity score," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 175(1), pages 1-21.
    18. Lee, Ying-Ying, 2018. "Efficient propensity score regression estimators of multivalued treatment effects for the treated," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 204(2), pages 207-222.
    19. Rothe, Christoph, 2016. "The Value of Knowing the Propensity Score for Estimating Average Treatment Effects," IZA Discussion Papers 9989, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Mengshan Xu & Taisuke Otsu, 2022. "Isotonic propensity score matching," Papers 2207.08868, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2024.
    21. Stephen L. Morgan & David J. Harding, 2006. "Matching Estimators of Causal Effects," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 35(1), pages 3-60, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    density ratio; causal inference; nonparametric estimation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General

    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:cep:stiecm:619. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/_new/publications/ .

    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.