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Covariate Balancing Sensitivity Analysis for Extrapolating Randomized Trials across Locations

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  • Xinkun Nie
  • Guido Imbens
  • Stefan Wager

Abstract

The ability to generalize experimental results from randomized control trials (RCTs) across locations is crucial for informing policy decisions in targeted regions. Such generalization is often hindered by the lack of identifiability due to unmeasured effect modifiers that compromise direct transport of treatment effect estimates from one location to another. We build upon sensitivity analysis in observational studies and propose an optimization procedure that allows us to get bounds on the treatment effects in targeted regions. Furthermore, we construct more informative bounds by balancing on the moments of covariates. In simulation experiments, we show that the covariate balancing approach is promising in getting sharper identification intervals.

Suggested Citation

  • Xinkun Nie & Guido Imbens & Stefan Wager, 2021. "Covariate Balancing Sensitivity Analysis for Extrapolating Randomized Trials across Locations," Papers 2112.04723, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2112.04723
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Lihua Lei & Roshni Sahoo & Stefan Wager, 2023. "Policy Learning under Biased Sample Selection," Papers 2304.11735, arXiv.org.
    2. Jacob Dorn & Kevin Guo & Nathan Kallus, 2021. "Doubly-Valid/Doubly-Sharp Sensitivity Analysis for Causal Inference with Unmeasured Confounding," Papers 2112.11449, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2022.
    3. Ashesh Rambachan & Amanda Coston & Edward Kennedy, 2022. "Robust Design and Evaluation of Predictive Algorithms under Unobserved Confounding," Papers 2212.09844, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2023.
    4. Colnet Bénédicte & Josse Julie & Varoquaux Gaël & Scornet Erwan, 2022. "Causal effect on a target population: A sensitivity analysis to handle missing covariates," Journal of Causal Inference, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 372-414, January.
    5. Benjamin Lu & Eli Ben-Michael & Avi Feller & Luke Miratrix, 2023. "Is It Who You Are or Where You Are? Accounting for Compositional Differences in Cross-Site Treatment Effect Variation," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 48(4), pages 420-453, August.
    6. Apoorva Lal & Wenjing Zheng & Simon Ejdemyr, 2023. "A Framework for Generalization and Transportation of Causal Estimates Under Covariate Shift," Papers 2301.04776, arXiv.org.

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