nw_est {causaldrf}

The Nadaraya-Watson modified estimator

Description

This is a kernel based regression method that uses a kernel as a weighting function to estimate the ADRF. The normal kernel is weighted by the inverse of the estimated GPS. See Flores et al. (2012) for more details.

Usage

nw_est(Y,
       treat,
       treat_formula,
       data,
       grid_val,
       bandw,
       treat_mod,
       link_function,
       ...)

Arguments

Y

is the the name of the outcome variable contained in data.

treat

is the name of the treatment variable contained in data.

treat_formula

an object of class "formula" (or one that can be coerced to that class) that regresses treat on a linear combination of X: a symbolic description of the model to be fitted.

data

is a dataframe containing Y and treat and X.

grid_val

contains the treatment values to be evaluated.

bandw

is the bandwidth. Default is 1.

treat_mod

a description of the error distribution to be used in the model for treatment. Options include: "Normal" for normal model, "LogNormal" for lognormal model, "Sqrt" for square-root transformation to a normal treatment, "Poisson" for Poisson model, "NegBinom" for negative binomial model, "Gamma" for gamma model.

link_function

is either "log", "inverse", or "identity" for the "Gamma" treat_mod.

...

additional arguments to be passed to the treatment regression function.

Details

This method is a version of the Nadarya-Watson estimator Nadaraya (1964) which is a local constant regression but weighted by the inverse of the estimated GPS.

Value

nw_est returns an object of class "causaldrf", a list that contains the following components:

param

parameter estimates for a nw fit.

t_mod

the result of the treatment model fit.

call

the matched call.

References

Schafer, J.L., Galagate, D.L. (2015). Causal inference with a continuous treatment and outcome: alternative estimators for parametric dose-response models. Manuscript in preparation.

Flores, Carlos A., et al. "Estimating the effects of length of exposure to instruction in a training program: the case of job corps." Review of Economics and Statistics 94.1 (2012): 153-171.

Nadaraya, Elizbar A. "On estimating regression." Theory of Probability and Its Applications 9.1 (1964): 141–142.

See Also

nw_est, iw_est, hi_est, gam_est, add_spl_est, bart_est, etc. for other estimates.

t_mod, overlap_fun to prepare the data for use in the different estimates.

Examples

## Example from Schafer (2015).

example_data <- sim_data

nw_list <- nw_est(Y = Y,
                treat = T,
                treat_formula = T ~ B.1 + B.2 + B.3 + B.4 + B.5 + B.6 + B.7 + B.8,
                data = example_data,
                grid_val = seq(8, 16, by = 1),
                bandw = bw.SJ(example_data$T),
                treat_mod = "Normal")

sample_index <- sample(1:1000, 100)

plot(example_data$T[sample_index],
      example_data$Y[sample_index],
      xlab = "T",
      ylab = "Y",
      main = "nw estimate")

lines(seq(8, 16, by = 1),
      nw_list$param,
      lty = 2,
      lwd = 2,
      col = "blue")

legend('bottomright',
        "nw estimate",
        lty=2,
        lwd = 2,
        col = "blue",
        bty='Y',
        cex=1)

rm(example_data, nw_list, sample_index)