EconBase
← All papers

Representation Multiplicity in Causal Forests

Yi Niu

arXiv 11 Sep 2026 · Econometrics

arXiv:2609.12406 · PDF · Extracted main text

Abstract

Including covariates alongside strictly monotone encodings can change a causal forest's treatment decisions without adding information. Random feature selection favors covariates represented by multiple columns. Under stated conditions, I show that this imbalance can persist as samples grow. Treatment effect components associated with other covariates are omitted, attenuated, or recovered depending on their inclusion probabilities and tree depth. Simulations and a job-training replication illustrate sensitivity to redundant encodings. Sampling groups of variables that generate identical splits restores prediction invariance on the grouping data when fitting and randomization are held fixed.

Citation extraction

10
references
15
in-text mentions
10
distinct cited
0
self-citations
7,598
main-text words

appendix boundary found by none_found · 100% 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, Victor and Newey, Whitney K. and Singh, Rahul (2022) Automatic Debiased Machine Learning of Causal and Structural Effects0.87452100%
2Chen, Zheng and Zhang, Weixiong (2013) Integrative Analysis Using Module-Guided Random Forests Reveals Correlated Genetic Factors Related to Mouse Weight0.64422100%
3Athey, Susan and Tibshirani, Julie and Wager, Stefan (2019) Generalized Random Forests0.40511100%
4Chi, Chien-Ming and Vossler, Patrick and Fan, Yingying and Lv, Jinchi (2022) Asymptotic Properties of High-Dimensional Random Forests0.40511100%
5Colot, Christian and Baecke, Philippe and Linden, Isabelle (2021) Leveraging Fine-Grained Mobile Data for Churn Detection through Essence Random Forest0.40511100%
6GRF Development Team (2026) The GRF Algorithm0.40511100%
7Klusowski, Jason M. and Tian, Peter M (2024) Large Scale Prediction with Decision Trees0.40511100%
8Louppe, Gilles (2014) Understanding Random Forests: From Theory to Practice0.40511100%
9Mei, Tianxing and Fan, Yingying and Lv, Jinchi (2026) Exogenous Randomness Empowering Random Forests0.40511100%
10Wager, Stefan and Athey, Susan (2018) Estimation and Inference of Heterogeneous Treatment Effects Using Random Forests0.40511100%

Showing the top 10 of 10 scored citations.