An instrumental variable approach under dependent censoring

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Crommen, Gilles, Beyhum, Jad, Van Keilegom, Ingrid
Format: Preprint
Published: 2022
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author Crommen, Gilles
Beyhum, Jad
Van Keilegom, Ingrid
author_facet Crommen, Gilles
Beyhum, Jad
Van Keilegom, Ingrid
contents This paper considers the problem of inferring the causal effect of a variable $Z$ on a dependently censored survival time $T$. We allow for unobserved confounding variables, such that the error term of the regression model for $T$ is correlated with the confounded variable $Z$. Moreover, $T$ is subject to dependent censoring. This means that $T$ is right censored by a censoring time $C$, which is dependent on $T$ (even after conditioning out the effects of the measured covariates). A control function approach, relying on an instrumental variable, is leveraged to tackle the confounding issue. Further, it is assumed that $T$ and $C$ follow a joint regression model with bivariate Gaussian error terms and an unspecified covariance matrix such that the dependent censoring can be handled in a flexible manner. Conditions under which the model is identifiable are given, a two-step estimation procedure is proposed, and it is shown that the resulting estimator is consistent and asymptotically normal. Simulations are used to confirm the validity and finite-sample performance of the estimation procedure. Finally, the proposed method is used to estimate the causal effect of job training programs on unemployment duration.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2208_04184
institution arXiv
publishDate 2022
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle An instrumental variable approach under dependent censoring
Crommen, Gilles
Beyhum, Jad
Van Keilegom, Ingrid
Statistics Theory
This paper considers the problem of inferring the causal effect of a variable $Z$ on a dependently censored survival time $T$. We allow for unobserved confounding variables, such that the error term of the regression model for $T$ is correlated with the confounded variable $Z$. Moreover, $T$ is subject to dependent censoring. This means that $T$ is right censored by a censoring time $C$, which is dependent on $T$ (even after conditioning out the effects of the measured covariates). A control function approach, relying on an instrumental variable, is leveraged to tackle the confounding issue. Further, it is assumed that $T$ and $C$ follow a joint regression model with bivariate Gaussian error terms and an unspecified covariance matrix such that the dependent censoring can be handled in a flexible manner. Conditions under which the model is identifiable are given, a two-step estimation procedure is proposed, and it is shown that the resulting estimator is consistent and asymptotically normal. Simulations are used to confirm the validity and finite-sample performance of the estimation procedure. Finally, the proposed method is used to estimate the causal effect of job training programs on unemployment duration.
title An instrumental variable approach under dependent censoring
topic Statistics Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.04184