Ibtihal Ferwana, Suyoung Park, Ting-Yi Wu, Lav R. Varshney
arXiv 15 May 2023 · cs.IT
arXiv:2305.08559 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text
Discontinuities can be fairly arbitrary but also cause a significant impact on outcomes in larger systems. Indeed, their arbitrariness is why they have been used to infer causal relationships among variables in numerous settings. Regression discontinuity from econometrics assumes the existence of a discontinuous variable that splits the population into distinct partitions to estimate the causal effects of a given phenomenon. Here we consider the design of partitions for a given discontinuous variable to optimize a certain effect previously studied using regression discontinuity. To do so, we propose a quantization-theoretic approach to optimize the effect of interest, first learning the causal effect size of a given discontinuous variable and then applying dynamic programming for optimal quantization design of discontinuities to balance the gain and loss in that effect size. We also develop a computationally-efficient reinforcement learning algorithm for the dynamic programming formulation of optimal quantization. We demonstrate our approach by designing optimal time zone borders for counterfactuals of social capital, social mobility, and health. This is based on regression discontinuity analyses we perform on novel data, which may be of independent empirical interest.
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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.
| Reference | Intensity | Mentions | Sections | Main text | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | O. Giuntella and F. Mazzonna, “Sunset time and the economic effects… (2019) Sunset time and the economic effects of social jetlag: evidence from us time zone borders | 0.644 | 2 | 2 | 100% |
| 2 | S. P. Lloyd, “Least squares quantization in PCM,” IEEE Transactions… (1957) Least squares quantization in PCM | 0.644 | 2 | 2 | 100% |
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| 4 | D. Sharma, “Design of absolutely optimal quantizers for a wide class… (1978) Design of absolutely optimal quantizers for a wide class of distortion measures | 0.644 | 2 | 2 | 100% |
| 5 | R. S. Sutton and A. G. Barto, Reinforcement Learning: An Introductio… (2018) | 0.585 | 3 | 1 | 100% |
| 6 | S. Calonico, M. D. Cattaneo, and R. Titiunik, “Robust nonparametric… (2014) Robust nonparametric confidence intervals for regression-discontinuity designs | 0.511 | 2 | 1 | 100% |
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| 8 | M. Jagnani, “Children's sleep and human capital production,” Review… (2022) Children's sleep and human capital production | 0.511 | 2 | 1 | 100% |
| 9 | D. S. Lee and T. Lemieux, “Regression discontinuity designs in econo… (2010) Regression discontinuity designs in economics | 0.511 | 2 | 1 | 100% |
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Showing the top 10 of 59 scored citations.