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We consider online learning problems under a partial observability model capturing situations where the information conveyed to the learner is between full information and bandit feedback. In the simplest variant, we assume that in addition…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-04-28 Tomas Kocak , Gergely Neu , Michal Valko , Remi Munos

A further understanding of cause and effect within observational data is critical across many domains, such as economics, health care, public policy, web mining, online advertising, and marketing campaigns. Although significant advances…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-04-11 Zhixuan Chu , Sheng Li

Two-sided marketplace platforms often run experiments to test the effect of an intervention before launching it platform-wide. A typical approach is to randomize individuals into the treatment group, which receives the intervention, and the…

Methodology · Statistics 2021-04-27 Hannah Li , Geng Zhao , Ramesh Johari , Gabriel Y. Weintraub

Learning for control in repeated tasks allows for well-designed experiments to gather the most useful data. We consider the setting in which we use a data-driven controller that does not have access to the true system dynamics. Rather, the…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-02-21 Sean Anderson , Katie Byl , João P. Hespanha

Empirical research shows that individuals' responses to treatments vary along latent characteristics, such as innate ability or motivation. Therefore, a policymaker seeking to maximize welfare may consider designing policies based on…

Econometrics · Economics 2026-05-06 Giacomo Opocher

Researchers increasingly have access to two types of data: (i) large observational datasets where treatment (e.g., class size) is not randomized but several primary outcomes (e.g., graduation rates) and secondary outcomes (e.g., test…

Methodology · Statistics 2025-05-29 Susan Athey , Raj Chetty , Guido Imbens

Randomized experiments are the preferred approach for evaluating the effects of interventions, but they are costly and often yield estimates with substantial uncertainty. On the other hand, in silico experiments leveraging foundation models…

Quantitative research relies heavily on coding, and coding errors are relatively common even in published research. In this paper, we examine whether individuals are more or less likely to check their code depending on the results they…

General Economics · Economics 2025-09-26 Bruno Ferman , Lucas Finamor

A randomized trial and an analysis of observational data designed to emulate the trial sample observations separately, but have the same eligibility criteria, collect information on some shared baseline covariates, and compare the effects…

Methodology · Statistics 2022-03-29 Issa J. Dahabreh , Jon A. Steingrimsson , James M. Robins , Miguel A. Hernán

Consumers discover their preferences through experience, yet the sequence and composition of those experiences are often designed by firms, digital platforms, or policymakers. We introduce a ``data-design'' framework for preference…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2026-04-17 Sebastiano Della Lena , Alessio Muscillo , Paolo Pin

When we interpret linear regression as estimating causal effects justified by quasi-experimental treatment variation, what do we mean? This paper formalizes a minimal criterion for quasi-experimental interpretation and characterizes its…

Econometrics · Economics 2026-01-21 Jiafeng Chen

This chapter reviews empirical evidence bearing on the design of online forums for deliberative civic engagement. Dimensions of design are defined for different aspects of the deliberation: its purpose, the target population, the…

Human-Computer Interaction · Computer Science 2013-02-22 Todd Davies , Reid Chandler

Ordered response scales are ubiquitous in economics, but their interpretation rests on an untested assumption: that numerical labels reflect equal psychological intervals. The contribution of this paper is to provide a systematic assessment…

General Economics · Economics 2025-09-03 Caspar Kaiser , Anthony Lepinteur

Bayesian experimental design involves the optimal allocation of resources in an experiment, with the aim of optimising cost and performance. For implicit models, where the likelihood is intractable but sampling from the model is possible,…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2019-02-26 Steven Kleinegesse , Michael Gutmann

Reweighting a distribution to minimize a distance to a target distribution is a powerful and flexible strategy for estimating a wide range of causal effects, but can be challenging in practice because optimal weights typically depend on…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-02-16 Oscar Clivio , Avi Feller , Chris Holmes

Experimental designs that are minimax in the presence of model misspecifications have been constructed so as to minimize the maximum, over classes of alternate response models, of the integrated mean squared error of the predicted values.…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2026-04-27 Rui Hu , Douglas P. Wiens

This chapter covers different approaches to policy evaluation for assessing the causal effect of a treatment or intervention on an outcome of interest. As an introduction to causal inference, the discussion starts with the experimental…

Econometrics · Economics 2019-10-03 Martin Huber

The real-world testing of decisions made using causal machine learning models is an essential prerequisite for their successful application. We focus on evaluating and improving contextual treatment assignment decisions: these are…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2022-07-13 Desi R. Ivanova , Joel Jennings , Cheng Zhang , Adam Foster

Empirical research plays a fundamental role in the machine learning domain. At the heart of impactful empirical research lies the development of clear research hypotheses, which then shape the design of experiments. The execution of…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-05-29 Daniel Vranješ , Oliver Niggemann

History-dependent constitutive models serve as macroscopic closures for the aggregated effects of micromechanics. Their parameters are typically learned from experimental data. With a limited experimental budget, eliciting the full range of…

Materials Science · Physics 2026-04-28 Kaushik Bhattacharya , Lianghao Cao , Andrew Stuart