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arXiv 2302.02560cs.LGstat.MEstat.ML
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使用神经网络进行暴露偏移的因果估计

Causal Estimation of Exposure Shifts with Neural Networks

Harvard University(哈佛大学);Colorado School of Public Health(科罗拉多公共卫生学院)

Mauricio Tec, Kevin Josey, Oladimeji Mudele, Francesca Dominici

AI总结:

提出TRESNET方法,通过引入具有双重鲁棒性和渐近效率的靶向正则化损失,支持指数族损失函数,解决了神经网络在处理变量分布偏移的因果效应估计中缺乏理论保证的问题,并在基准实验和公共卫生政策评估中验证了其有效性和适用性。

摘要:

因果推断中的一个基本任务是估计处理变量中分布偏移的影响。我们将此问题称为偏移响应函数(SRF)估计。现有的用于因果推断的神经网络方法缺乏针对SRF估计的理论保证和实际实现。在本文中,我们引入了使用神经网络进行暴露偏移的靶向正则化(TRESNET),这是一种具有鲁棒性和效率保证的SRF估计方法。我们的贡献有两方面。首先,我们提出了一种用于神经网络的靶向正则化损失,其具有针对SRF估计特有的双重鲁棒性和渐近效率的理论性质。其次,我们将靶向正则化扩展为支持指数族的损失函数,以适应非连续的结果分布(例如,离散计数)。我们进行了基准实验,证明了TRESNET的广泛适用性和竞争力。然后,我们将我们的方法应用于公共卫生中的一个关键政策问题,以估计将美国国家环境空气质量标准(NAAQS)中PM 2.5的标准从12 μg/m^3修订为9 μg/m^3的因果效应。美国环境保护署(EPA)最近提出了这一修订。我们的目标是使用由全美6800万个体组成的数据,估计这一预期修订将导致的死亡人数减少。

英文摘要:

A fundamental task in causal inference is estimating the effect of distribution shift in the treatment variable. We refer to this problem as shift-response function (SRF) estimation. Existing neural network methods for causal inference lack theoretical guarantees and practical implementations for SRF estimation. In this paper, we introduce Targeted Regularization for Exposure Shifts with Neural Networks (TRESNET), a method to estimate SRFs with robustness and efficiency guarantees. Our contributions are twofold. First, we propose a targeted regularization loss for neural networks with theoretical properties that ensure double robustness and asymptotic efficiency specific to SRF estimation. Second, we extend targeted regularization to support loss functions from the exponential family to accommodate non-continuous outcome distributions (e.g., discrete counts). We conduct benchmark experiments demonstrating TRESNET's broad applicability and competitiveness. We then apply our method to a key policy question in public health to estimate the causal effect of revising the US National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for PM 2.5 from 12 $μg/m^3$ to 9 $μg/m^3$. This change has been recently proposed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Our goal is to estimate the reduction in deaths that would result from this anticipated revision using data consisting of 68 million individuals across the U.S.

机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来,可能存在错误,请以论文正文为准。

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