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Hauptverfasser: Anniwaer, Yilizhati, Zhang, Yuqian
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.05048
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author Anniwaer, Yilizhati
Zhang, Yuqian
author_facet Anniwaer, Yilizhati
Zhang, Yuqian
contents In causal inference, measuring treatment heterogeneity is crucial as it provides scientific insights into how treatments influence outcomes and guides personalized decision-making. In this work, we study semi-supervised settings where a labeled dataset is accompanied by a large unlabeled dataset, and develop semi-supervised estimators for two measures of treatment heterogeneity: the total treatment heterogeneity (TTH) and the explained treatment heterogeneity (ETH) of a simplified working model. We propose semi-supervised estimators for both quantities and demonstrate their improved robustness and efficiency compared with supervised methods. For ETH estimation, we show that direct semi-supervised approaches may result in efficiency loss relative to supervised counterparts. To address this, we introduce a re-weighting strategy that assigns data-dependent weights to labeled and unlabeled samples to optimize efficiency. The proposed approach guarantees an asymptotic variance no larger than that of the supervised method, ensuring its safe use. We evaluate the performance of the proposed estimators through simulation studies and a real-data application based on an AIDS clinical trial.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_05048
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Semi-supervised inference for treatment heterogeneity
Anniwaer, Yilizhati
Zhang, Yuqian
Methodology
In causal inference, measuring treatment heterogeneity is crucial as it provides scientific insights into how treatments influence outcomes and guides personalized decision-making. In this work, we study semi-supervised settings where a labeled dataset is accompanied by a large unlabeled dataset, and develop semi-supervised estimators for two measures of treatment heterogeneity: the total treatment heterogeneity (TTH) and the explained treatment heterogeneity (ETH) of a simplified working model. We propose semi-supervised estimators for both quantities and demonstrate their improved robustness and efficiency compared with supervised methods. For ETH estimation, we show that direct semi-supervised approaches may result in efficiency loss relative to supervised counterparts. To address this, we introduce a re-weighting strategy that assigns data-dependent weights to labeled and unlabeled samples to optimize efficiency. The proposed approach guarantees an asymptotic variance no larger than that of the supervised method, ensuring its safe use. We evaluate the performance of the proposed estimators through simulation studies and a real-data application based on an AIDS clinical trial.
title Semi-supervised inference for treatment heterogeneity
topic Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.05048