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arXiv research

A locally-built, LLM-digested index of recent arXiv papers in quant finance, geometry/topology, and statistical ML — keyword search served straight from SQLite on this machine.

168,695 papers · 148 categories

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1223 · Jun 202519922001200920172026
36 results for unconfoundedness

DONUT improves treatment effect estimation by enforcing orthogonality constraints.

problem Estimating treatment effects from observational data is challenging due to unobserved outcomes.
method DONUT uses a regularization framework that formalizes unconfoundedness as orthogonality, leading to deep orthogonal networks.
result DONUT outperforms state-of-the-art methods in estimating average treatment effects.

Paper extends causal inference methods beyond unconfoundedness and overlap assumptions.

problem Treatment effect identification in studies violating unconfoundedness and overlap.
method Statistical learning theory approach to identify ATE and ATT.
result General conditions for identifying ATE and ATT, including scenarios like Regression Discontinuity designs.

VTD uses deep embeddings to estimate treatment effects from longitudinal data without unconfoundedness assumption.

problem Challenges in estimating individualized treatment effects from longitudinal observational data due to confounding bias.
method Leverages deep variational embeddings and observed proxies to learn hidden confounders.
result Effective in estimating treatment effects when hidden confounding is the leading bias.

Proposes methods for learning optimal dynamic treatment regimes robust to unconfoundedness violations.

problem Estimating optimal dynamic treatment regimes using historical observational data when unconfoundedness is violated.
method Utilizes proximal causal inference framework to propose three nonparametric identification methods, a (K+1)-robust method, and establish a semiparametric efficiency bound.
result Establishes the (K+1)-robust method for learning optimal dynamic treatment regimes, validating its efficiency and multiple robustness through numerical experiments.

DEBIAS learns causal effects from psychiatric longitudinal data by optimizing outcome weights.

problem Causal inference challenges in psychiatric longitudinal data due to symptom heterogeneity and latent confounding.
method DEBIAS algorithm that optimizes outcome weights to maximize durable treatment effects and minimize confounding.
result DEBIAS consistently outperforms state-of-the-art methods in recovering causal effects for clinically interpretable composite outcomes.

SVM used for estimating treatment effects without confounding.

problem Estimating average treatment effects in the presence of confounding variables.
method Adapts SVM classifier as a kernel-based weighting procedure to balance covariates and estimate causal effects.
result SVM provides a continuous relaxation of the quadratic integer program for balancing covariates and maximizing effective sample size.

New methods for estimating causal effects with limited overlap, using Stable Probability Weighting.

problem Estimating causal effects with limited overlap in multivalued treatments.
method Stable Probability Weighting (SPW) and Finite-Sample Stable Probability Weighting (FPW) methods.
result SPW and FPW provide practical solutions for estimating and inferring causal effects with limited overlap.

This work highlights problems with off-policy estimation in recommender systems due to unobserved confounders.

problem Evaluation of recommender systems under unobserved confounders.
method Policy-based estimators and characterisation of statistical bias due to confounding.
result Naive propensity estimation under confounding leads to severely biased metric estimates.

Proposes a new VAE model to estimate treatment effects from confounded data.

problem Estimating treatment effects in the presence of confounding variables.
method Intact-VAE, a variant of variational autoencoder (VAE), using a latent variable for confounders.
result Proves identification of treatment effects under unconfoundedness and shows state-of-the-art performance.

Proposes a method to infer causal effects from incomplete data using latent confounders.

problem Missing data complicates causal inference, especially for non-linear models.
method Uses variational autoencoders to learn latent confounders and incorporate missing values.
result Demonstrates effectiveness of the method, especially for non-linear models.

Algorithm detects unmeasured confounding in observational data.

problem Estimating treatment effects in observational studies with untestable conditions.
method Two-stage procedure that detects dependencies between causal mechanisms.
result Algorithm efficiently detects confounding on simulated and semi-synthetic data.

The paper uses neural networks to estimate treatment effects even with many confounders.

problem Estimating treatment effects with a growing number of confounders.
method General optimization framework using neural networks to approximate nuisance functions.
result Neural networks can handle a diverging number of confounders and alleviate the curse of dimensionality.

CDVAE estimates treatment effects over time by accounting for unobserved variables.

problem Estimating treatment effects over time in the presence of unobserved confounders.
method Causal Dynamic Variational Autoencoder (CDVAE) that addresses unconfoundedness and unobserved heterogeneity.
result CDVAE outperforms existing methods in estimating Conditional Average Treatment Effects (CATEs).

A novel disentangled graph autoencoder improves treatment effect estimation from networked observational data.

problem Treatment effect estimation from observational data is challenging due to unconfoundedness assumption and latent confounders.
method Proposes a disentangled variational graph autoencoder to disentangle latent factors and enforce factor independence.
result Extensive experiments show superior performance compared to state-of-the-art approaches.

Counterfactual inference has become a ubiquitous tool in online advertisement, recommendation systems, medical diagnosis, and econometrics. Accurate modeling of outcome distributions associated with different interventions -- known as counterfactual distributions -- is crucial for the success of these applications. In …

2018-05-22abs ↗pdf ↗

The paper provides guarantees for high-dimensional DML estimators in observational studies.

problem Estimating treatment effects in observational settings with many covariates.
method Debiased machine learning (DML) with finite-sample guarantees.
result Bounding the deviation of finite-sample distribution from asymptotic Gaussian approximation.

ZNet learns instrumental representations from covariates for causal inference.

problem Lack of valid instruments in observational studies.
method Representation learning approach that constructs instrumental representations from observed covariates.
result ZNet enables IV-based estimation without explicit instruments.

Meta-learners estimate CATE from multiple environments with partial identification.

problem Estimating CATE from observational data across multiple environments with violations of causal assumptions.
method Adapt IV literature for partial identification, propose model-agnostic meta-learners.
result Meta-learners effectively estimate CATE bounds across various experiments.

A new method improves estimation of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness.

problem Estimating vaccine effectiveness under the test-negative design.
method A doubly robust estimator (TNDDR) using cross-fitting and machine learning.
result The TNDDR estimator is n\sqrt{n}-consistent, asymptotically normal, and doubly robust.

Proposes a method to estimate treatment effects using instruments.

problem Estimating treatment effects from observational data is challenging when unconfoundedness is violated.
method Leverages instruments to estimate bounds on conditional average treatment effect (CATE) through a mapping to a discrete representation space and a two-step procedure.
result Demonstrates theoretical validity and reduced estimation variance in finite-sample settings.

We study the problem of learning personalized decision policies from observational data while accounting for possible unobserved confounding. Previous approaches, which assume unconfoundedness, i.e., that no unobserved confounders affect both the treatment assignment as well as outcome, can lead to policies that introd…

2018-05-22abs ↗pdf ↗

A framework for causal classification using uplift and causal heterogeneity methods.

problem Predicting the effect of interventions on different individuals from data.
method Causal classification framework using off-the-shelf supervised methods.
result Framework works for causal classification and uplift modelling, competitive with other methods.

PESCAL uses mediators to learn from confounded offline data.

problem Learning from confounded observational data in reinforcement learning.
method PESCAL uses mediator variables and the pessimistic principle to address confounding bias and distributional shift.
result It is sufficient to learn a lower bound of the mediator distribution function to mitigate distributional shift.

New method for robust policy evaluation in offline reinforcement learning with sequentially exogenous unobserved confounders.

problem Offline reinforcement learning in domains with unobserved confounders.
method Orthogonalized robust fitted-Q-iteration with closed-form solutions and bias-correction.
result Effective in simulations and real-world data, improving robustness and computational ease.

CausalEGM estimates causal effects by encoding confounders, improving performance in high-dimensional settings.

problem Challenges in estimating causal effects with high-dimensional confounders.
method CausalEGM framework using generative modeling to decouple confounders and estimate causal effects.
result CausalEGM outperforms existing methods in binary and continuous treatment settings, especially with large sample sizes and high-dimensional confounders.

While machine learning (ML) methods have received a lot of attention in recent years, these methods are primarily for prediction. Empirical researchers conducting policy evaluations are, on the other hand, pre-occupied with causal problems, trying to answer counterfactual questions: what would have happened in the abse…

2019-03-01abs ↗pdf ↗

Paper tackles optimal policy learning with observational data in multi-action scenarios.

problem Optimal policy learning in multi-action settings with observational data.
method Review of estimation approaches, analysis of risk preference, discussion of potential failures.
result Average regret of a policy with multi-valued treatment is contingent on the decision-maker's attitude towards risk.