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Related papers: Stein-like Estimators for Causal Mediation Analysi…

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The identification of latent mediator variables is typically conducted using standard structural equation models (SEMs). When SEM is applied to mediation analysis with a causal interpretation, valid inference relies on the strong assumption…

Methodology · Statistics 2025-10-02 Sofia Morelli , Roberto Faleh , Holger Brandt

Mediation analysis is widely used for exploring treatment mechanisms; however, it faces challenges when nonignorable missing confounders are present. Efficient inference of mediation effects and the efficiency loss due to nonignorable…

Methodology · Statistics 2026-04-22 Jiawei Shan , Wei Li , Chunrong Ai

Natural experiments are a cornerstone of applied economics, providing settings for estimating causal effects with a compelling argument for treatment randomisation, but give little indication of the mechanisms behind causal effects. Causal…

Econometrics · Economics 2025-10-07 Senan Hogan-Hennessy

We study causal effect estimation from a mixture of observational and interventional data in a confounded linear regression model with multivariate treatments. We show that the statistical efficiency in terms of expected squared error can…

In this paper, I show that classic two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimates are highly unstable with weak instruments. I propose a ridge estimator (ridge IV) and show that it is asymptotically normal even with weak instruments, whereas 2SLS…

Econometrics · Economics 2019-04-19 Karthik Rajkumar

When individuals engage in social or physical interactions, a unit's outcome may depend on the treatments received by others. In such interference environments, we provide a unified framework characterizing a broad class of spillover…

Methodology · Statistics 2025-12-16 Fei Fang , Laura Forastiere

Instrumental variable analysis is a widely used method to estimate causal effects in the presence of unmeasured confounding. When the instruments, exposure and outcome are not measured in the same sample, Angrist and Krueger (1992)…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2018-09-07 Qingyuan Zhao , Jingshu Wang , Jack Bowden , Dylan S. Small

Causal mediation analysis is an important statistical tool to quantify effects transmitted by intermediate variables from a cause to an outcome. There is a gap in mediation analysis methods to handle mixture mediator data that are…

Methodology · Statistics 2025-07-22 Meilin Jiang , Seonjoo Lee , A. James O'Malley , Pengfei Li , Zhigang Li

The method of instrumental variables (IV) provides a framework to study causal effects in both randomized experiments with noncompliance and in observational studies where natural circumstances produce as-if random nudges to accept…

Methodology · Statistics 2018-02-07 Hyunseung Kang , Laura Peck , Luke Keele

Instrumental variables (IVs) are widely used to estimate causal effects from non-randomized data. A canonical example is a randomized trial with noncompliance, in which the randomized treatment assignment serves as an IV for the…

Methodology · Statistics 2026-02-06 Rui Wang , Ying-Qi Zhao , Oliver Dukes , Bo Zhang

Causal mediation analysis decomposes the total treatment effect into a portion operating through a hypothesized mediator and a residual direct portion. Identification of natural direct and indirect effects typically rests on the mediator…

Methodology · Statistics 2026-05-19 Yuki Ohnishi , Fan Li

Causal mediation analysis is used to evaluate direct and indirect causal effects of a treatment on an outcome of interest through an intermediate variable or a mediator.It is difficult to identify the direct and indirect causal effects…

Applications · Statistics 2020-01-14 Wei Li , Chunchen Liu , Zhi Geng , John Murray

The identification of the network effect is based on either group size variation, the structure of the network or the relative position in the network. I provide easy-to-verify necessary conditions for identification of undirected network…

Econometrics · Economics 2019-02-19 Guy Tchuente

Stein operators allow to characterise probability distributions via differential operators. Based on these characterisations, we develop a new method of point estimation for marginal parameters of strictly stationary and ergodic processes,…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2024-12-05 Bruno Ebner , Adrian Fischer , Robert E. Gaunt , Babette Picker , Yvik Swan

Analyses of causal mediation often involve exposure-induced confounders or, relatedly, multiple mediators. In such applications, researchers aim to estimate a variety of different quantities, including interventional direct and indirect…

Methodology · Statistics 2025-06-18 Jesse Zhou , Geoffrey T. Wodtke

In many applications, researchers are interested in the direct and indirect causal effects of a treatment or exposure on an outcome of interest. Mediation analysis offers a rigorous framework for identifying and estimating these causal…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2024-10-08 Yizhen Xu , Numair Sani , AmirEmad Ghassami , Ilya Shpitser

To investigate causal mechanisms, causal mediation analysis decomposes the total treatment effect into the natural direct and indirect effects. This paper examines the estimation of the direct and indirect effects in a general treatment…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2024-01-24 Lukang Huang , Wei Huang , Oliver Linton , Zheng Zhang

In cluster-randomized trials (CRTs), there is emerging interest in exploring the causal mechanism in which a cluster-level treatment affects the outcome through an intermediate outcome. The majority of existing causal mediation methods are…

Methodology · Statistics 2026-01-12 Chao Cheng , Fan Li

Causal inference necessarily relies upon untestable assumptions; hence, it is crucial to assess the robustness of obtained results to violations of identification assumptions. However, such sensitivity analysis is only occasionally…

Methodology · Statistics 2025-05-19 Tobias Freidling , Qingyuan Zhao

We develop and analyze empirical Bayes Stein-type estimators for use in the estimation of causal effects in large-scale online experiments. While online experiments are generally thought to be distinguished by their large sample size, we…

Methodology · Statistics 2019-11-15 Drew Dimmery , Eytan Bakshy , Jasjeet Sekhon