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Regularizing Fairness in Optimal Policy Learning with Distributional Targets

Anders Bredahl Kock, David Preinerstorfer

arXiv 31 Jan 2024 · Econometrics · publishedJournal of Econometrics (2026)

arXiv:2401.17909 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

A decision maker typically (i) incorporates training data to learn about the relative effectiveness of treatments, and (ii) chooses an implementation mechanism that implies an “optimal” predicted outcome distribution according to some target functional. Nevertheless, a fairness-aware decision maker may not be satisfied achieving said optimality at the cost of being “unfair" against a subgroup of the population, in the sense that the outcome distribution in that subgroup deviates too strongly from the overall optimal outcome distribution. We study a framework that allows the decision maker to regularize such deviations, while allowing for a wide range of target functionals and fairness measures to be employed. We establish regret and consistency guarantees for empirical success policies with (possibly) data-driven preference parameters, and provide numerical results. Furthermore, we briefly illustrate the methods in two empirical settings.

Citation extraction

45
references
98
in-text mentions
45
distinct cited
2
self-citations
19,920
main-text words

appendix boundary found by appendix_command · 56% 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
1Kitagawa, T. and Tetenov, A (2021) Equality-minded treatment choice0.89911473%
2Viviano, D. and Bradic, J (2023) Fair policy targeting0.87492100%
3Lyons, E. and Zhang, L (2017) The impact of entrepreneurship programs on minorities0.87462100%
4Kock, A. B., Preinerstorfer, D. and Veliyev, B (2022) Functional sequential treatment allocation self0.8434375%
5Berk, R., Heidari, H., Jabbari, S., Joseph, M., Kearns, M., Morgenst… (2017) A convex framework for fair regression0.73732100%
6Bilias, Y (2000) Sequential testing of duration data: the case of the pennsylvania ‘reemployment bonus’ experiment0.73732100%
7Kock, A. B., Preinerstorfer, D. and Veliyev, B (2023) Treatment recommendation with distributional targets self0.6939533%
8Kitagawa, T. and Tetenov, A (2018) Who should be treated? Empirical welfare maximization methods for treatment choice0.6443267%
9Aliprantis, C. and Border, K (2006) Infinite Dimensional Analysis0.5855420%
10Fang, E. X., Wang, Z. and Wang, L (2023) Fairness-oriented learning for optimal individualized treatment rules0.58531100%

Showing the top 10 of 45 scored citations.