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Nonparametric estimation of causal heterogeneity under high-dimensional confounding

Michael Zimmert, Michael Lechner

arXiv 23 Aug 2019 · Econometrics · 26 citations (OpenAlex)

arXiv:1908.08779 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

This paper considers the practically important case of nonparametrically estimating heterogeneous average treatment effects that vary with a limited number of discrete and continuous covariates in a selection-on-observables framework where the number of possible confounders is very large. We propose a two-step estimator for which the first step is estimated by machine learning. We show that this estimator has desirable statistical properties like consistency, asymptotic normality and rate double robustness. In particular, we derive the coupled convergence conditions between the nonparametric and the machine learning steps. We also show that estimating population average treatment effects by averaging the estimated heterogeneous effects is semi-parametrically efficient. The new estimator is an empirical example of the effects of mothers' smoking during pregnancy on the resulting birth weight.

Citation extraction

41
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distinct cited
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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
1Hahn, Jinyong (1998) On the Role of the Propensity Score in Efficient Semiparametric Estimation of Average Treatment Effects1.000103100%
2Abrevaya, Jason, Hsu, Yu-Chin, Lieli, Robert P (2015) Estimating Conditional Average Treatment Effects1.00093100%
3Chernozhukov, Victor, Chetverikov, Denis, Demirer, Mert, Duflo, Esth… (2018) Double/Debiased Machine Learning for Treatment and Structural Parameters1.00084100%
4Lee, Sokbae, Okui, Ryo, Whang, Yoon-Jae (2016) Doubly robust uniform confidence band for the conditional average treatment effect function0.96911491%
5Newey, Whitney K (1994) The Asymptotic Variance of Semiparametric Estimators0.84310360%
6Hirano, Keisuke, Imbens, Guido W., Ridder, Geert (2003) Efficient Estimation of Average Treatment Effects Using the Estimated Propensity Score0.81142100%
7Pagan, Adrian, Ullah, Aman (1999) Nonparametric Econometrics0.6444250%
8Hahn, Jinyong, Ridder, Geert (2013) Asymptotic Variance of Semiparametric Estimators With Generated Regressors0.64422100%
9Kennedy, Edward H., Ma, Zongming, McHugh, Matthew D., Small, Dylan S (2017) Non-Parametric Methods for Doubly Robust Estimation of Continuous Treatment Effects0.64422100%
10Lechner, Michael (2018) Modified Causal Forests for Estimating Heterogeneous Causal Effects self0.58531100%

Showing the top 10 of 41 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
1Aggregation Trees0.87452
2Meta-Learners for Estimation of Causal Effects: Finite Sample Cross-Fit Performance0.73732
3Doubly-Robust Inference for Conditional Average Treatment Effects with High-Dimensional Controls0.69351
4Estimation and Inference for Policy Relevant Treatment Effects0.51122
5Group Average Treatment Effects for Observational Studies0.51121
6Fisher-Schultz Lecture: Generic Machine Learning Inference on Heterogenous Treatment Effects in Randomized Experiments, with an Application to Immunization in India0.40511
7Debiased Machine Learning of Set-Identified Linear Models0.40511
8Regularized Orthogonal Machine Learning for Nonlinear Semiparametric Models0.40511
9Estimation of Conditional Average Treatment Effects with High-Dimensional Data0.40511
10Double Debiased Machine Learning Nonparametric Inference with Continuous Treatments0.40511