Abstract
This paper considers treatment evaluation when outcomes are only observed for a subpopulation due to sample selection or outcome attrition/non-response. For identification, we combine a selection-on-observables assumption for treatment assignment with either selection-on-observables or instrumental variable assumptions concerning the outcome attrition/sample selection process. To control in a data-driven way for potentially high dimensional pre-treatment covariates that motivate the selection-on-observables assumptions, we adapt the double machine learning framework to sample selection problems. That is, we make use of (a) Neyman-orthogonal and doubly robust score functions, which imply the robustness of treatment effect estimation to moderate regularization biases in the machine learning-based estimation of the outcome, treatment, or sample selection models and (b) sample splitting (or cross-fitting) to prevent overfitting bias. We demonstrate that the proposed estimators are asymptotically normal and root-n consistent under specific regularity conditions concerning the machine learners. The estimator is available in the causalweight package for the statistical software R.
Original language | English |
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Publisher | arXiv.org (Cornell University) |
Number of pages | 36 |
Publication status | Published - 9 Dec 2020 |
Bibliographical note
This article was submitted and deposit in arXiv : a free distribution service and an open-access archive.Keywords
- sample selection
- double machine learning
- doubly robust estimation
- efficient score