Related papers: Network experimentation at scale
In most real-world systems units are interconnected and can be represented as networks consisting of nodes and edges. For instance, in social systems individuals can have social ties, family or financial relationships. In settings where…
The evaluation of clustering algorithms can involve running them on a variety of benchmark problems, and comparing their outputs to the reference, ground-truth groupings provided by experts. Unfortunately, many research papers and graduate…
We study the behavior of network diffusions based on the PageRank random walk from a set of seed nodes. These diffusions are known to reveal small, localized clusters (or communities) and also large macro-scale clusters by varying a…
This paper considers the estimation of treatment effects in randomized experiments with complex experimental designs, including cases with interference between units. We develop a design-based estimation theory for arbitrary experimental…
This paper introduces a kernel discrepancy-based framework for rerandomization to enhance the precision of causal inference in controlled experiments. We demonstrate that the kernel discrepancy is the key part of the variance upper bound…
Randomized experiments in which the treatment of a unit can affect the outcomes of other units are becoming increasingly common in healthcare, economics, and in the social and information sciences. From a causal inference perspective, the…
Two-stage randomization is a powerful design for estimating treatment effects in the presence of interference; that is, when one individual's treatment assignment affects another individual's outcomes. Our motivating example is a two-stage…
Cluster or group randomized trials (CRTs) are increasingly used for both behavioral and system-level interventions, where entire clusters are randomly assigned to a study condition or intervention. Apart from the assigned cluster-level…
Machine learning systems increasingly depend on pipelines of multiple algorithms to provide high quality and well structured predictions. This paper argues interaction effects between clustering and prediction (e.g. classification,…
Network interference, where the outcome of an individual is affected by the treatment assignment of those in their social network, is pervasive in real-world settings. However, it poses a challenge to estimating causal effects. We consider…
Experimentation is widely utilized for causal inference and data-driven decision-making across disciplines. In an A/B experiment, for example, an online business randomizes two different treatments (e.g., website designs) to their customers…
Cross-level interactions among fixed effects in linear mixed models (also known as multilevel models) are often complicated by the variances stemming from random effects and residuals. When these variances change across clusters, tests of…
Although there is now a large literature on policy evaluation and learning, much of the prior work assumes that the treatment assignment of one unit does not affect the outcome of another unit. Unfortunately, ignoring interference can lead…
Randomized experiments with treatment and control groups are an important tool to measure the impacts of interventions. However, in experimental settings with one-sided noncompliance extant empirical approaches may not produce the estimands…
Adaptive experimentation under unknown network interference requires solving two coupled problems: (i) learning the underlying dynamics of interference among units and (ii) using these dynamics to inform treatment allocation in order to…
How should a network experiment be designed to achieve high statistical power? Ex- perimental treatments on networks may spread. Randomizing assignment of treatment to nodes enhances learning about the counterfactual causal effects of a…
Node influence metrics have been applied to many applications, including ranking web pages on internet, or locations on spatial networks. PageRank is a popular and effective algorithm for estimating node influence. However, conventional…
Evaluation of large-scale network systems and applications is usually done in one of three ways: simulations, real deployment on Internet, or on an emulated network testbed such as a cluster. Simulations can study very large systems but…
All networks can be analyzed at multiple scales. A higher scale of a network is made up of macro-nodes: subgraphs that have been grouped into individual nodes. Recasting a network at higher scales can have useful effects, such as decreasing…
Online controlled experiments are the primary tool for measuring the causal impact of product changes in digital businesses. It is increasingly common for digital products and services to interact with customers in a personalised way. Using…