38 research outputs found
Hypothesis Testing, âDutch Bookâ Arguments, and Risk
âDutch Bookâ arguments and references to gambling theorems are typical in the debate between Bayesians and scientists committed to âclassicalâ statistical methods. These arguments have rarely convinced non-Bayesian scientists to abandon certain conventional practices (like fixed-level null hypothesis significance testing), partially because many scientists feel that gambling theorems have little relevance to their research activities. In other words, scientists âdonât bet.â This article examines one attempt, by Schervish, Seidenfeld, and Kadane, to progress beyond such apparent stalemates by connecting âDutch Bookââtype mathematical results with principles actually endorsed by practicing experimentalists.</jats:p
Explaining the Behavior of Black-Box Prediction Algorithms with Causal Learning
We propose to explain the behavior of black-box prediction methods (e.g.,
deep neural networks trained on image pixel data) using causal graphical
models. Specifically, we explore learning the structure of a causal graph where
the nodes represent prediction outcomes along with a set of macro-level
"interpretable" features, while allowing for arbitrary unmeasured confounding
among these variables. The resulting graph may indicate which of the
interpretable features, if any, are possible causes of the prediction outcome
and which may be merely associated with prediction outcomes due to confounding.
The approach is motivated by a counterfactual theory of causal explanation
wherein good explanations point to factors which are "difference-makers" in an
interventionist sense. The resulting analysis may be useful in algorithm
auditing and evaluation, by identifying features which make a causal difference
to the algorithm's output
Causal Inference With Outcome-Dependent Missingness And Self-Censoring
We consider missingness in the context of causal inference when the outcome
of interest may be missing. If the outcome directly affects its own missingness
status, i.e., it is "self-censoring", this may lead to severely biased causal
effect estimates. Miao et al. [2015] proposed the shadow variable method to
correct for bias due to self-censoring; however, verifying the required model
assumptions can be difficult. Here, we propose a test based on a randomized
incentive variable offered to encourage reporting of the outcome that can be
used to verify identification assumptions that are sufficient to correct for
both self-censoring and confounding bias. Concretely, the test confirms whether
a given set of pre-treatment covariates is sufficient to block all backdoor
paths between the treatment and outcome as well as all paths between the
treatment and missingness indicator after conditioning on the outcome. We show
that under these conditions, the causal effect is identified by using the
treatment as a shadow variable, and it leads to an intuitive inverse
probability weighting estimator that uses a product of the treatment and
response weights. We evaluate the efficacy of our test and downstream estimator
via simulations.Comment: 15 pages. In proceedings of the 39th Conference on Uncertainty in
Artificial Intelligenc
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The Effect of the Earned Income Tax Credit on Physical and Mental healthâResults from the Atlanta Paycheck Plus Experiment
Policy Points:
The Paycheck Plus randomized controlled trial tested a fourfold increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for single adults without dependent children r over 3 years in New York and Atlanta.
In New York, the intervention improved economic, mental, and physical health outcomes. In Atlanta, it had no economic benefit or impact on physical health r and may have worsened mental health.
In Atlanta, tax filing and bonus receipt were lower than in the New York arm of the trial, which may explain the lack of economic benefits. Lower mental health scores in the treatment group were driven by disadvantaged men, and the study sample was in good mental health
Optical Fiber LSPR Biosensor Prepared by Gold Nanoparticle Assembly on Polyelectrolyte Multilayer
This article provides a novel method of constructing an optical fiber localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) biosensor. A gold nanoparticle (NP) assembled film as the sensing layer was built on the polyelectrolyte (PE) multilayer modified sidewall of an unclad optical fiber. By using a trilayer PE structure, we obtained a monodisperse gold NP assembled film. The preparation procedure for this LSPR sensor is simple and time saving. The optical fiber LSPR sensor has higher sensitivity and outstanding reproducibility. The higher anti-interference ability for response to an antibody makes it a promising method in application as a portable immuno-sensor