Externally Valid Policy Evaluation Combining Trial and Observational Data

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Ek, Sofia, Zachariah, Dave
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Ek, Sofia
Zachariah, Dave
author_facet Ek, Sofia
Zachariah, Dave
contents Randomized trials are widely considered as the gold standard for evaluating the effects of decision policies. Trial data is, however, drawn from a population which may differ from the intended target population and this raises a problem of external validity (aka. generalizability). In this paper we seek to use trial data to draw valid inferences about the outcome of a policy on the target population. Additional covariate data from the target population is used to model the sampling of individuals in the trial study. We develop a method that yields certifiably valid trial-based policy evaluations under any specified range of model miscalibrations. The method is nonparametric and the validity is assured even with finite samples. The certified policy evaluations are illustrated using both simulated and real data.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2310_14763
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Externally Valid Policy Evaluation Combining Trial and Observational Data
Ek, Sofia
Zachariah, Dave
Methodology
Machine Learning
Randomized trials are widely considered as the gold standard for evaluating the effects of decision policies. Trial data is, however, drawn from a population which may differ from the intended target population and this raises a problem of external validity (aka. generalizability). In this paper we seek to use trial data to draw valid inferences about the outcome of a policy on the target population. Additional covariate data from the target population is used to model the sampling of individuals in the trial study. We develop a method that yields certifiably valid trial-based policy evaluations under any specified range of model miscalibrations. The method is nonparametric and the validity is assured even with finite samples. The certified policy evaluations are illustrated using both simulated and real data.
title Externally Valid Policy Evaluation Combining Trial and Observational Data
topic Methodology
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.14763