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Synthetic learner: model-free inference on treatments over time

Davide Viviano, Jelena Bradic

arXiv 2 Apr 2019 · Statistics — Methodology · publishedJournal of Econometrics (2022) · 18 citations (OpenAlex)

arXiv:1904.01490 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

Understanding the effect of a particular treatment or a policy pertains to many areas of interest, ranging from political economics, marketing to healthcare. In this paper, we develop a non-parametric algorithm for detecting the effects of treatment over time in the context of Synthetic Controls. The method builds on counterfactual predictions from many algorithms without necessarily assuming that the algorithms correctly capture the model. We introduce an inferential procedure for detecting treatment effects and show that the testing procedure is asymptotically valid for stationary, beta mixing processes without imposing any restriction on the set of base algorithms under consideration. We discuss consistency guarantees for average treatment effect estimates and derive regret bounds for the proposed methodology. The class of algorithms may include Random Forest, Lasso, or any other machine-learning estimator. Numerical studies and an application illustrate the advantages of the method.

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Most heavily cited references

The works this paper leans on most, across its whole bibliography — not restricted to papers in our corpus. Ranked by composite intensity, which combines how often a work is mentioned, how many sections mention it, and how much of that falls in the main text rather than the appendix.

ReferenceIntensityMentionsSectionsMain text
1Chernozhukov, V., K. Wüthrich, and Y. Zhu (2021) An exact and robust conformal inference method for counterfactual and synthetic controls1.00063100%
2Chernozhukov, V., K. Wuthrich, and Y. Zhu (2018) A $ t $-test for synthetic controls1.00053100%
3Abadie, A., A. Diamond, and J. Hainmueller (2010) Synthetic control methods for comparative case studies: Estimating the effect of california’s tobacco control program0.9416483%
4Arkhangelsky, D., S. Athey, D. A. Hirshberg, G. W. Imbens, and S. Wa… (2021) Synthetic difference-in-differences0.92843100%
5Chernozhukov, V., K. Wüthrich, and Z. Yinchu (2018) Exact and robust conformal inference methods for predictive machine learning with dependent data0.92843100%
6Carvalho, C., R. Masini, and M. C. Medeiros (2018) Arco: an artificial counterfactual approach for high-dimensional panel time-series data0.87452100%
7Cesa-Bianchi, N., G. Lugosi, et al (1999) On prediction of individual sequences0.8434375%
8Doudchenko, N. and G. W. Imbens (2016) Balancing, regression, difference-in-differences and synthetic control methods: A synthesis0.84333100%
9Ferman, B. and C. Pinto (2016) Revisiting the synthetic control estimator0.84333100%
10Imai, K. and I. S. Kim (2021) On the use of two-way fixed effects regression models for causal inference with panel data0.84333100%

Showing the top 10 of 79 scored citations.

Cited by, within the corpus

arXiv econ.EM papers that cite this one, ranked by how heavily they lean on it.

Citing paperIntensityMentionsSections
1Forecasting Algorithms for Causal \ Inference with Panel Data1.00053
2Causal inference and policy evaluation without a control group$^*$0.73733
3Synthetic Control As Online Linear Regression0.64441
4ARMA-Design: Optimal Treatment Allocation Strategies for A/B Testing in Partially Observable Experiments0.64422
5Synthetic Regressing Control0.51121
6Estimating the Causal Effect of an Intervention in a Time Series Setting: the C-ARIMA Approach0.40511
7Causal Models for Longitudinal and Panel Data: A Survey0.40511
8Identification and Inference for Synthetic Controls with Confounding0.40511
9Bandit Algorithms for Policy Learning: Methods, Implementation, and Welfare-performance0.40511