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Calibrating doubly-robust estimators with unbalanced treatment assignment

Daniele Ballinari

arXiv 3 Mar 2024 · Econometrics · publishedEconomics Letters (2024) · 3 citations (OpenAlex)

arXiv:2403.01585 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

Machine learning methods, particularly the double machine learning (DML) estimator (Chernozhukov et al., 2018), are increasingly popular for the estimation of the average treatment effect (ATE). However, datasets often exhibit unbalanced treatment assignments where only a few observations are treated, leading to unstable propensity score estimations. We propose a simple extension of the DML estimator which undersamples data for propensity score modeling and calibrates scores to match the original distribution. The paper provides theoretical results showing that the estimator retains the DML estimator's asymptotic properties. A simulation study illustrates the finite sample performance of the estimator.

Citation extraction

32
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53
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main-text words

appendix boundary found by appendix_titled_section at “Appendix: Proofs” · 64% 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
1Chernozhukov, V., D. Chetverikov, M. Demirer, E. Duflo, C. Hansen, W… (2018) Double/debiased machine learning for treatment and structural parameters1.00085100%
2Japkowicz, N. and S. Stephen (2002) The class imbalance problem: A systematic study0.92843100%
3Hahn, J (1998) On the Role of the Propensity Score in Efficient Semiparametric Estimation of Average Treatment Effects0.84333100%
4Huber, M., M. Lechner, and C. Wunsch (2013) The performance of estimators based on the propensity score0.81142100%
5Athey, S. and G. W. Imbens (2019) Machine Learning Methods That Economists Should Know About0.64422100%
6Künzel, S. R., J. S. Sekhon, P. J. Bickel, and B. Yu (2019) Metalearners for estimating heterogeneous treatment effects using machine learning0.64422100%
7Wager, S (2022) STATS 361: Causal Inference, Lecture Notes0.5113233%
8Knaus, M. C., M. Lechner, and A. Strittmatter (2022) Heterogeneous employment effects of job search programs: A machine learning approach0.51121100%
9Pozzolo, A. D., O. Caelen, R. A. Johnson, and G. Bontempi (2015) Calibrating Probability with Undersampling for Unbalanced Classification, in0.51121100%
10Bach, P., O. Schacht, V. Chernozhukov, S. Klaassen, and M. Spindler (2024) Hyperparameter Tuning for Causal Inference with Double Machine Learning: A Simulation Study, Preprint (arXiv:2402.04674)0.40511100%

Showing the top 10 of 32 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
1Sensitivity Analysis for Treatment Effects in Difference-in-Differences Models using Riesz Representation0.40511