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Covariate Adjustment in Stratified Experiments

Max Cytrynbaum

arXiv 7 Feb 2023 · Econometrics · publishedQuantitative Economics (2024) · 6 citations (OpenAlex)

arXiv:2302.03687 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

This paper studies covariate adjusted estimation of the average treatment effect in stratified experiments. We work in a general framework that includes matched tuples designs, coarse stratification, and complete randomization as special cases. Regression adjustment with treatment-covariate interactions is known to weakly improve efficiency for completely randomized designs. By contrast, we show that for stratified designs such regression estimators are generically inefficient, potentially even increasing estimator variance relative to the unadjusted benchmark. Motivated by this result, we derive the asymptotically optimal linear covariate adjustment for a given stratification. We construct several feasible estimators that implement this efficient adjustment in large samples. In the special case of matched pairs, for example, the regression including treatment, covariates, and pair fixed effects is asymptotically optimal. We also provide novel asymptotically exact inference methods that allow researchers to report smaller confidence intervals, fully reflecting the efficiency gains from both stratification and adjustment. Simulations and an empirical application demonstrate the value of our proposed methods.

Citation extraction

33
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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
1Winston Lin (2013) Agnostic notes on regression adjustments to experimental data: Reexamining freedman's critique1.00083100%
2Ceren Baysan (2022) Persistent polarizing effects of persuasion: Experimental evidence from turkey0.874102100%
3Guido W. Imbens and Donald B. Rubin (2015) Causal Inference for Statistics, Social, and Biomedical Sciences: An Introduction0.87452100%
4Guido Imbens and Joshua D. Angrist (1994) Identification and estimation of local average treatment effects0.7373367%
5Yuehao Bai, Joseph P. Romano, and Azeem M. Shaikh (2021) Inference in experiments with matched pairs0.73732100%
6Xin Lu and Hanzhong Liu (2024) Tyranny-of-the-minority regression adjustment in randomized experiments0.73732100%
7Ke Zhu, Hanzhong Liu, and Yuehan Yang (2024) Design-based theory for lasso adjustment in randomized block experiments with a general blocking scheme0.73732100%
8Max Cytrynbaum (2023) Optimal stratification of survey experiments self0.70520635%
9Tim Armstrong (2022) Asymptotic efficiency bounds for a class of experimental designs0.64422100%
10Colin B. Fogarty (2018) Regression-assisted inference for the average treatment effect in paired experiments0.64422100%

Showing the top 10 of 33 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
1Finely Stratified Rerandomization Designs1.00063
2Unbiased Regression-Adjusted Estimation of Average Treatment Effects in Randomized Controlled Trials0.84333
3On the Efficiency of Highly Stratified Experiments0.73732
4Inference in Cluster Randomized Trials with Matched Pairs0.64422
5On Efficient Estimation of Distributional Treatment Effects under Covariate-Adaptive Randomization0.64422
6Covariate Adjustment in Experiments with Matched Pairs0.58531
7Inference for Two-stage Experiments under Covariate-Adaptive Randomization0.51121
8Robust and Efficient Estimation of Potential Outcome Means Under Random Assignment0.40511
9Inference in Experiments with Matched Pairs and Imperfect Compliance0.40511
10A Primer on the Analysis of Randomized Experiments and a Survey of some Recent Advances0.40511