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Estimation of Conditional Average Treatment Effects with High-Dimensional Data

Qingliang Fan, Yu-Chin Hsu, Robert P. Lieli, Yichong Zhang

arXiv 6 Aug 2019 · Econometrics · publishedJournal of Business and Economic Statistics (2020) · 93 citations (OpenAlex)

arXiv:1908.02399 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

Given the unconfoundedness assumption, we propose new nonparametric estimators for the reduced dimensional conditional average treatment effect (CATE) function. In the first stage, the nuisance functions necessary for identifying CATE are estimated by machine learning methods, allowing the number of covariates to be comparable to or larger than the sample size. The second stage consists of a low-dimensional local linear regression, reducing CATE to a function of the covariate(s) of interest. We consider two variants of the estimator depending on whether the nuisance functions are estimated over the full sample or over a hold-out sample. Building on Belloni at al. (2017) and Chernozhukov et al. (2018), we derive functional limit theory for the estimators and provide an easy-to-implement procedure for uniform inference based on the multiplier bootstrap. The empirical application revisits the effect of maternal smoking on a baby's birth weight as a function of the mother's age.

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51
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108
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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., D. Chetverikov, M. Demirer, E. Duflo, C. Hansen, W… (2018) Double/debiased machine learning for treatment and structural parameters0.9568588%
2Belloni, A., V. Chernozhukov, I. Fernández-Val, and C. Hansen (2017) Program evaluation with high-dimensional data0.90215773%
3Chernozhukov, V. and V. Semenova (2019) Simultaneous inference for best linear predictor of the conditional average treatment effect and other structural functions0.87462100%
4Farrell, M. H (2015) Robust inference on average treatment effects with possibly more covariates than observations0.84333100%
5Lee, S., R. Okui, and Y.-J. Whang (2017) Doubly robust uniform confidence band for the conditional average treatment effect function0.84333100%
6Belloni, A., V. Chernozhukov, and C. Hansen (2014) Inference on treatment effects after selection among high-dimensional controls0.7373367%
7Chernozhukov, V., D. Chetverikov, M. Demirer, E. Duflo, C. Hansen, a… (2017) Double/debiased/neyman machine learning of treatment effects0.73732100%
8Su, L., T. Ura, and Y. Zhang (2019) Non-separable models with high-dimensional data0.73732100%
9Chernozhukov, V., D. Chetverikov, and K. Kato (2014) Gaussian approximation of suprema of empirical processes0.7218538%
10Kennedy, E. H., Z. Ma, M. D. McHugh, and D. S. Small (2017) Non-parametric methods for doubly robust estimation of continuous treatment effects0.64422100%

Showing the top 10 of 51 scored citations.

Cited by, within the corpus

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Citing paperIntensityMentionsSections
1Continuous difference-in-differences with double/debiased machine learning0.94164
2Estimation and Inference for Causal Functions with Multiway Clustered Data0.92855
3Aggregation Trees0.92843
4Doubly Robust Uniform Confidence Bands for Group-Time Conditional Average Treatment Effects in Difference-in-Differences0.874102
5Triple/Debiased Lasso for Statistical Inference of Conditional Average Treatment Effects0.87482
6Group Average Treatment Effects for Observational Studies0.73732
7A Nonparametric Test of Heterogeneous Treatment Effects under Interference0.73732
8Orthogonal Integrated Conditional Moment Tests for Treatment Effect Heterogeneity0.73732
9Double Debiased Machine Learning Nonparametric Inference with Continuous Treatments0.669103
10A Machine-Learning-Compatible Omnibus Test for Treatment Effect Heterogeneity0.64422