Root-n consistent semiparametric learning with high-dimensional nuisance functions under minimal sparsity

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Liu, Lin, Wang, Xinbo, Wang, Yuhao
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866909328007495680
author Liu, Lin
Wang, Xinbo
Wang, Yuhao
author_facet Liu, Lin
Wang, Xinbo
Wang, Yuhao
contents Treatment effect estimation under unconfoundedness is a fundamental task in causal inference. In response to the challenge of analyzing high-dimensional datasets collected in substantive fields such as epidemiology, genetics, economics, and social sciences, various methods for treatment effect estimation with high-dimensional nuisance parameters (the outcome regression and the propensity score) have been developed in recent years. However, it is still unclear what is the necessary and sufficient sparsity condition on the nuisance parameters such that we can estimate the treatment effect at $1 / \sqrt{n}$-rate. In this paper, we propose a new Double-Calibration strategy that corrects the estimation bias of the nuisance parameter estimates computed by regularized high-dimensional techniques and demonstrate that the corresponding Doubly-Calibrated estimator achieves $1 / \sqrt{n}$-rate as long as one of the nuisance parameters is sparse with sparsity below $\sqrt{n} / \log p$, where $p$ denotes the ambient dimension of the covariates, whereas the other nuisance parameter can be arbitrarily complex and completely misspecified. The Double-Calibration strategy can also be applied to settings other than treatment effect estimation, e.g. regression coefficient estimation in the presence of a diverging number of controls in a semiparametric partially linear model, and local average treatment effect estimation with instrumental variables.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2305_04174
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Root-n consistent semiparametric learning with high-dimensional nuisance functions under minimal sparsity
Liu, Lin
Wang, Xinbo
Wang, Yuhao
Statistics Theory
Methodology
Treatment effect estimation under unconfoundedness is a fundamental task in causal inference. In response to the challenge of analyzing high-dimensional datasets collected in substantive fields such as epidemiology, genetics, economics, and social sciences, various methods for treatment effect estimation with high-dimensional nuisance parameters (the outcome regression and the propensity score) have been developed in recent years. However, it is still unclear what is the necessary and sufficient sparsity condition on the nuisance parameters such that we can estimate the treatment effect at $1 / \sqrt{n}$-rate. In this paper, we propose a new Double-Calibration strategy that corrects the estimation bias of the nuisance parameter estimates computed by regularized high-dimensional techniques and demonstrate that the corresponding Doubly-Calibrated estimator achieves $1 / \sqrt{n}$-rate as long as one of the nuisance parameters is sparse with sparsity below $\sqrt{n} / \log p$, where $p$ denotes the ambient dimension of the covariates, whereas the other nuisance parameter can be arbitrarily complex and completely misspecified. The Double-Calibration strategy can also be applied to settings other than treatment effect estimation, e.g. regression coefficient estimation in the presence of a diverging number of controls in a semiparametric partially linear model, and local average treatment effect estimation with instrumental variables.
title Root-n consistent semiparametric learning with high-dimensional nuisance functions under minimal sparsity
topic Statistics Theory
Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04174