Bootstrapping with AI/ML-generated labels

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Christensen, Timothy, Goncalves, Silvia, Perron, Benoit
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Christensen, Timothy
Goncalves, Silvia
Perron, Benoit
author_facet Christensen, Timothy
Goncalves, Silvia
Perron, Benoit
contents AI/ML methods are increasingly used in economics to generate binary variables (or labels) via classification algorithms. When these generated variables are included as covariates in regressions, even small misclassification errors can induce large biases in OLS estimators and invalidate standard inference. We study whether the bootstrap can correct this bias and deliver valid inference. We first show that a seemingly natural fixed-label bootstrap, which generates data using estimated labels but relies on a corrupted version in estimation, is generally invalid unless a strong independence condition between the latent true labels and other covariates holds. We then propose a coupled-label bootstrap that jointly resamples the true and imputed labels, and show it is valid without this condition. Two finite-sample adjustments further improve coverage: a variance correction for uncertainty in estimated misclassification rates and a Hessian rotation for near-singular designs. We illustrate the methods in simulations and apply them to investigate the relationship between wages and remote work status.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_23770
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Bootstrapping with AI/ML-generated labels
Christensen, Timothy
Goncalves, Silvia
Perron, Benoit
Econometrics
Machine Learning
AI/ML methods are increasingly used in economics to generate binary variables (or labels) via classification algorithms. When these generated variables are included as covariates in regressions, even small misclassification errors can induce large biases in OLS estimators and invalidate standard inference. We study whether the bootstrap can correct this bias and deliver valid inference. We first show that a seemingly natural fixed-label bootstrap, which generates data using estimated labels but relies on a corrupted version in estimation, is generally invalid unless a strong independence condition between the latent true labels and other covariates holds. We then propose a coupled-label bootstrap that jointly resamples the true and imputed labels, and show it is valid without this condition. Two finite-sample adjustments further improve coverage: a variance correction for uncertainty in estimated misclassification rates and a Hessian rotation for near-singular designs. We illustrate the methods in simulations and apply them to investigate the relationship between wages and remote work status.
title Bootstrapping with AI/ML-generated labels
topic Econometrics
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.23770