Proximity Matters: Local Proximity Enhanced Balancing for Treatment Effect Estimation

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Wang, Hao, Chen, Zhichao, Liu, Zhaoran, Chen, Xu, Li, Haoxuan, Lin, Zhouchen
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Wang, Hao
Chen, Zhichao
Liu, Zhaoran
Chen, Xu
Li, Haoxuan
Lin, Zhouchen
author_facet Wang, Hao
Chen, Zhichao
Liu, Zhaoran
Chen, Xu
Li, Haoxuan
Lin, Zhouchen
contents Heterogeneous treatment effect (HTE) estimation from observational data poses significant challenges due to treatment selection bias. Existing methods address this bias by minimizing distribution discrepancies between treatment groups in latent space, focusing on global alignment. However, the fruitful aspect of local proximity, where similar units exhibit similar outcomes, is often overlooked. In this study, we propose Proximity-enhanced CounterFactual Regression (CFR-Pro) to exploit proximity for enhancing representation balancing within the HTE estimation context. Specifically, we introduce a pair-wise proximity regularizer based on optimal transport to incorporate the local proximity in discrepancy calculation. However, the curse of dimensionality renders the proximity measure and discrepancy estimation ineffective -- exacerbated by limited data availability for HTE estimation. To handle this problem, we further develop an informative subspace projector, which trades off minimal distance precision for improved sample complexity. Extensive experiments demonstrate that CFR-Pro accurately matches units across different treatment groups, effectively mitigates treatment selection bias, and significantly outperforms competitors. Code is available at https://github.com/HowardZJU/CFR-Pro.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_01111
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Proximity Matters: Local Proximity Enhanced Balancing for Treatment Effect Estimation
Wang, Hao
Chen, Zhichao
Liu, Zhaoran
Chen, Xu
Li, Haoxuan
Lin, Zhouchen
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Heterogeneous treatment effect (HTE) estimation from observational data poses significant challenges due to treatment selection bias. Existing methods address this bias by minimizing distribution discrepancies between treatment groups in latent space, focusing on global alignment. However, the fruitful aspect of local proximity, where similar units exhibit similar outcomes, is often overlooked. In this study, we propose Proximity-enhanced CounterFactual Regression (CFR-Pro) to exploit proximity for enhancing representation balancing within the HTE estimation context. Specifically, we introduce a pair-wise proximity regularizer based on optimal transport to incorporate the local proximity in discrepancy calculation. However, the curse of dimensionality renders the proximity measure and discrepancy estimation ineffective -- exacerbated by limited data availability for HTE estimation. To handle this problem, we further develop an informative subspace projector, which trades off minimal distance precision for improved sample complexity. Extensive experiments demonstrate that CFR-Pro accurately matches units across different treatment groups, effectively mitigates treatment selection bias, and significantly outperforms competitors. Code is available at https://github.com/HowardZJU/CFR-Pro.
title Proximity Matters: Local Proximity Enhanced Balancing for Treatment Effect Estimation
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.01111