EconBase
← All papers

The Local Approach to Causal Inference under Network Interference

Eric Auerbach, Hongchang Guo, Max Tabord-Meehan

arXiv 9 May 2021 · Econometrics

arXiv:2105.03810 · PDF · Extracted main text

Abstract

We propose a new nonparametric modeling framework for causal inference when outcomes depend on how agents are linked in a social or economic network. Such network interference describes a large literature on treatment spillovers, social interactions, social learning, information diffusion, disease and financial contagion, social capital formation, and more. Our approach works by first characterizing how an agent is linked in the network using the configuration of other agents and connections nearby as measured by path distance. The impact of a policy or treatment assignment is then learned by pooling outcome data across similarly configured agents. We demonstrate the approach by deriving finite-sample bounds on the mean-squared error of a k-nearest-neighbor estimator for the average treatment response as well as proposing an asymptotically valid test for the hypothesis of policy irrelevance.

Citation extraction

56
references
97
in-text mentions
56
distinct cited
1
self-citations
12,824
main-text words

appendix boundary found by appendix_command · 52% of the source is main text. Read the extracted text to check this.

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
1Jackson, Rodriguez-Barraquer and Tan (2012) Social capital and social quilts: Network patterns of favor exchange0.96510490%
2Canay and Kamat (2018) Approximate permutation tests and induced order statistics in the regression discontinuity design0.8746367%
3de Paula, Richards-Shubik and Tamer (2018) Identifying preferences in networks with bounded degree0.84333100%
4Leung (2019) Causal Inference Under Approximate Neighborhood Interference0.81142100%
5Döring, Györfi and Walk (2017) Rate of convergence of k-nearest-neighbor classification rule0.7373367%
6Benjamini and Schramm (2001) Recurrence of Distributional Limits of Finite Planar Graphs0.73732100%
7Auerbach, Auerbach and Tabord-Meehan (2024) Discussion of ‘Causal inference with misspecified exposure mappings: separating definitions and assumptions’ self0.64422100%
8Azoulay, Zivin and Wang (2010) Superstar Extinction0.64422100%
9Ballester, Calvó-Armengol and Zenou (2006) Who's who in networks. wanted: the key player0.64422100%
10Blume, Brock, Durlauf and Ioannides (2010) Identification of social interactions0.64422100%

Showing the top 10 of 56 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
1The Network Propensity Score: Spillovers, Homophily, and Selection into Treatment0.84333
2Model-Based Inference and Experimental Design for Interference Using Partial Network Data0.64422
3Fixed-Population Causal Inference for Models of Equilibrium0.64422
4Linear estimation of global average treatment effects0.40511
5Network Synthetic Interventions: A Causal Framework for Panel Data Under Network Interference0.40511
6Graph Neural Networks for Causal Inference Under Network Confounding0.40511
7Exposure effects are not automatically useful for policymaking0.40511
8Identifying Treatment and Spillover Effects Using Exposure Contrasts0.40511
9Regression Discontinuity Design with Spillovers0.40511
10A Primer on the Analysis of Randomized Experiments and a Survey of some Recent Advances0.40511