Covariate Balancing and the Equivalence of Weighting and Doubly Robust Estimators of Average Treatment Effects

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Słoczyński, Tymon, Uysal, S. Derya, Wooldridge, Jeffrey M.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866909797957238784
author Słoczyński, Tymon
Uysal, S. Derya
Wooldridge, Jeffrey M.
author_facet Słoczyński, Tymon
Uysal, S. Derya
Wooldridge, Jeffrey M.
contents How should researchers adjust for covariates? We show that if the propensity score is estimated using a specific covariate balancing approach, inverse probability weighting (IPW), augmented inverse probability weighting (AIPW), and inverse probability weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) estimators are numerically equivalent for the average treatment effect (ATE), and likewise for the average treatment effect on the treated (ATT). The resulting weights are inherently normalized, making normalized and unnormalized IPW and AIPW identical. We discuss implications for instrumental variables and difference-in-differences estimators and illustrate with two applications how these numerical equivalences simplify analysis and interpretation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2310_18563
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Covariate Balancing and the Equivalence of Weighting and Doubly Robust Estimators of Average Treatment Effects
Słoczyński, Tymon
Uysal, S. Derya
Wooldridge, Jeffrey M.
Econometrics
Methodology
How should researchers adjust for covariates? We show that if the propensity score is estimated using a specific covariate balancing approach, inverse probability weighting (IPW), augmented inverse probability weighting (AIPW), and inverse probability weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) estimators are numerically equivalent for the average treatment effect (ATE), and likewise for the average treatment effect on the treated (ATT). The resulting weights are inherently normalized, making normalized and unnormalized IPW and AIPW identical. We discuss implications for instrumental variables and difference-in-differences estimators and illustrate with two applications how these numerical equivalences simplify analysis and interpretation.
title Covariate Balancing and the Equivalence of Weighting and Doubly Robust Estimators of Average Treatment Effects
topic Econometrics
Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.18563