Efficient adjustment sets for time-dependent treatment effect estimation in nonparametric causal graphical model

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Adenyo, David, Schnitzer, Mireille E, Berger, David, Guertin, Jason R, Talbot, Denis
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Adenyo, David
Schnitzer, Mireille E
Berger, David
Guertin, Jason R
Talbot, Denis
author_facet Adenyo, David
Schnitzer, Mireille E
Berger, David
Guertin, Jason R
Talbot, Denis
contents Criteria for identifying optimal adjustment sets yielding consistent estimation with minimal asymptotic variance of average treatment effects in parametric and nonparametric models have recently been established. In a single treatment time point setting, it has been shown that the optimal adjustment set can be identified based on a causal directed acyclic graph alone. In a time-dependent treatment setting, previous work has established graphical rules to compare the asymptotic variance of estimators based on nested time-dependent adjustment sets. However, these rules do not always permit the identification of an optimal time-dependent adjustment set based on a causal graph alone. We extend those results by exploiting conditional independencies that can be read from the graph and demonstrate theoretically and empirically that our results can yield estimators with lower asymptotic variance than those allowed by previous results. We further show how our results allow for the identification of optimal adjustment sets based on a directed acyclic graph alone in the time-dependent treatment setting.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_01000
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Efficient adjustment sets for time-dependent treatment effect estimation in nonparametric causal graphical model
Adenyo, David
Schnitzer, Mireille E
Berger, David
Guertin, Jason R
Talbot, Denis
Statistics Theory
Criteria for identifying optimal adjustment sets yielding consistent estimation with minimal asymptotic variance of average treatment effects in parametric and nonparametric models have recently been established. In a single treatment time point setting, it has been shown that the optimal adjustment set can be identified based on a causal directed acyclic graph alone. In a time-dependent treatment setting, previous work has established graphical rules to compare the asymptotic variance of estimators based on nested time-dependent adjustment sets. However, these rules do not always permit the identification of an optimal time-dependent adjustment set based on a causal graph alone. We extend those results by exploiting conditional independencies that can be read from the graph and demonstrate theoretically and empirically that our results can yield estimators with lower asymptotic variance than those allowed by previous results. We further show how our results allow for the identification of optimal adjustment sets based on a directed acyclic graph alone in the time-dependent treatment setting.
title Efficient adjustment sets for time-dependent treatment effect estimation in nonparametric causal graphical model
topic Statistics Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.01000