A Unified Framework for Debiased Machine Learning: Riesz Representer Fitting under Bregman Divergence

Fuente: arXiv
Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Kato, Masahiro
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
_version_ 1866911436456853504
author Kato, Masahiro
author_facet Kato, Masahiro
contents Estimating the Riesz representer is central to debiased machine learning for causal and structural parameter estimation. We propose generalized Riesz regression, a unified framework for estimating the Riesz representer by fitting a representer model via Bregman divergence minimization. This framework includes various divergences as special cases, such as the squared distance and the Kullback--Leibler (KL) divergence, where the former recovers Riesz regression and the latter recovers tailored loss minimization. Under suitable pairs of divergence and model specifications (link functions), the dual problems of the Riesz representer fitting problem correspond to covariate balancing, which we call automatic covariate balancing. Moreover, under the same specifications, the sample average of outcomes weighted by the estimated Riesz representer satisfies Neyman orthogonality even without estimating the regression function, a property we call automatic Neyman orthogonalization. This property not only reduces the estimation error of Neyman orthogonal scores but also clarifies a key distinction between debiased machine learning and targeted maximum likelihood estimation (TMLE). Our framework can also be viewed as a generalization of density ratio fitting under Bregman divergences to Riesz representer estimation, and it applies beyond density ratio estimation. We provide convergence analyses for both reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) and neural network model classes. A Python package for generalized Riesz regression is released as genriesz and is available at https://github.com/MasaKat0/genriesz.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_07752
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Unified Framework for Debiased Machine Learning: Riesz Representer Fitting under Bregman Divergence
Kato, Masahiro
Econometrics
Machine Learning
Statistics Theory
Methodology
Estimating the Riesz representer is central to debiased machine learning for causal and structural parameter estimation. We propose generalized Riesz regression, a unified framework for estimating the Riesz representer by fitting a representer model via Bregman divergence minimization. This framework includes various divergences as special cases, such as the squared distance and the Kullback--Leibler (KL) divergence, where the former recovers Riesz regression and the latter recovers tailored loss minimization. Under suitable pairs of divergence and model specifications (link functions), the dual problems of the Riesz representer fitting problem correspond to covariate balancing, which we call automatic covariate balancing. Moreover, under the same specifications, the sample average of outcomes weighted by the estimated Riesz representer satisfies Neyman orthogonality even without estimating the regression function, a property we call automatic Neyman orthogonalization. This property not only reduces the estimation error of Neyman orthogonal scores but also clarifies a key distinction between debiased machine learning and targeted maximum likelihood estimation (TMLE). Our framework can also be viewed as a generalization of density ratio fitting under Bregman divergences to Riesz representer estimation, and it applies beyond density ratio estimation. We provide convergence analyses for both reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS) and neural network model classes. A Python package for generalized Riesz regression is released as genriesz and is available at https://github.com/MasaKat0/genriesz.
title A Unified Framework for Debiased Machine Learning: Riesz Representer Fitting under Bregman Divergence
topic Econometrics
Machine Learning
Statistics Theory
Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.07752