Bounding causal effects with an unknown mixture of informative and non-informative missingness

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Rubinstein, Max, Agniel, Denis, Han, Larry, Horvitz-Lennon, Marcela, Normand, Sharon-Lise
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2024
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author Rubinstein, Max
Agniel, Denis
Han, Larry
Horvitz-Lennon, Marcela
Normand, Sharon-Lise
author_facet Rubinstein, Max
Agniel, Denis
Han, Larry
Horvitz-Lennon, Marcela
Normand, Sharon-Lise
contents In experimental and observational data settings, researchers often have limited knowledge of the reasons for missing outcomes. To address this uncertainty, we propose bounds on causal effects for missing outcomes, accommodating the scenario where missingness is an unobserved mixture of informative and non-informative components. Within this mixed missingness framework, we explore several assumptions to derive bounds on causal effects, including bounds expressed as a function of user-specified sensitivity parameters. We develop influence-function based estimators of these bounds to enable flexible, non-parametric, and machine learning based estimation, achieving root-n convergence rates and asymptotic normality under relatively mild conditions. We further consider the identification and estimation of bounds for other causal quantities that remain meaningful when informative missingness reflects a competing outcome, such as death. We conduct simulation studies and illustrate our methodology with a study on the causal effect of antipsychotic drugs on diabetes risk using a health insurance dataset.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_16902
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Bounding causal effects with an unknown mixture of informative and non-informative missingness
Rubinstein, Max
Agniel, Denis
Han, Larry
Horvitz-Lennon, Marcela
Normand, Sharon-Lise
Methodology
In experimental and observational data settings, researchers often have limited knowledge of the reasons for missing outcomes. To address this uncertainty, we propose bounds on causal effects for missing outcomes, accommodating the scenario where missingness is an unobserved mixture of informative and non-informative components. Within this mixed missingness framework, we explore several assumptions to derive bounds on causal effects, including bounds expressed as a function of user-specified sensitivity parameters. We develop influence-function based estimators of these bounds to enable flexible, non-parametric, and machine learning based estimation, achieving root-n convergence rates and asymptotic normality under relatively mild conditions. We further consider the identification and estimation of bounds for other causal quantities that remain meaningful when informative missingness reflects a competing outcome, such as death. We conduct simulation studies and illustrate our methodology with a study on the causal effect of antipsychotic drugs on diabetes risk using a health insurance dataset.
title Bounding causal effects with an unknown mixture of informative and non-informative missingness
topic Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.16902