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DoubleML is an open-source Python library implementing the double machine learning framework of Chernozhukov et al. (2018) for a variety of causal models. It contains functionalities for valid statistical inference on causal parameters when the estimation of nuisance parameters is based on machine learning methods. The object-oriented implementation of DoubleML provides a high flexibility in terms of model specifications and makes it easily extendable. The package is distributed under the MIT license and relies on core libraries from the scientific Python ecosystem: scikit-learn, numpy, pandas, scipy, statsmodels and joblib. Source code, documentation and an extensive user guide can be found at https://github.com/DoubleML/doubleml-for-py and https://docs.doubleml.org.
The R package DoubleML implements the double/debiased machine learning framework of Chernozhukov et al. (2018). It provides functionalities to estimate parameters in causal models based on machine learning methods. The double machine learning framework consist of three key ingredients: Neyman orthogonality, high-quality machine learning estimation and sample splitting. Estimation of nuisance components can be performed by various state-of-the-art machine learning methods that are available in the mlr3 ecosystem. DoubleML makes it possible to perform inference in a variety of causal models, including partially linear and interactive regression models and their extensions to instrumental variable estimation. The object-oriented implementation of DoubleML enables a high flexibility for the model specification and makes it easily extendable. This paper serves as an introduction to the double machine learning framework and the R package DoubleML. In reproducible code examples with simulated and real data sets, we demonstrate how DoubleML users can perform valid inference based on machine learning methods.
Boosting techniques and neural networks are particularly effective machine learning methods for insurance pricing. Often in practice, there are nevertheless endless debates about the choice of the right loss function to be used to train the machine learning model, as well as about the appropriate metric to assess the performances of competing models. Also, the sum of fitted values can depart from the observed totals to a large extent and this often confuses actuarial analysts. The lack of balance inherent to training models by minimizing deviance outside the familiar GLM with canonical link setting has been empirically documented in Wuthrich (2019, 2020) who attributes it to the early stopping rule in gradient descent methods for model fitting. The present paper aims to further study this phenomenon when learning proceeds by minimizing Tweedie deviance. It is shown that minimizing deviance involves a trade-off between the integral of weighted differences of lower partial moments and the bias measured on a specific scale. Autocalibration is then proposed as a remedy. This new method to correct for bias adds an extra local GLM step to the analysis. Theoretically, it is shown that it implements the autocalibration concept in pure premium calculation and ensures that balance also holds on a local scale, not only at portfolio level as with existing bias-correction techniques. The convex order appears to be the natural tool to compare competing models, putting a new light on the diagnostic graphs and associated metrics proposed by Denuit et al. (2019).
Academic research and the financial industry have recently paid great attention to Machine Learning algorithms due to their power to solve complex learning tasks. In the field of firms default prediction, however, the lack of interpretability has prevented the extensive adoption of the black-box type of models. To overcome this drawback and maintain the high performances of black-boxes, this paper relies on a model-agnostic approach. Accumulated Local Effects and Shapley values are used to shape the predictors impact on the likelihood of default and rank them according to their contribution to the model outcome. Prediction is achieved by two Machine Learning algorithms (eXtreme Gradient Boosting and FeedForward Neural Network) compared with three standard discriminant models. Results show that our analysis of the Italian Small and Medium Enterprises manufacturing industry benefits from the overall highest classification power by the eXtreme Gradient Boosting algorithm without giving up a rich interpretation framework.
In the standard data analysis framework, data is first collected (once for all), and then data analysis is carried out. With the advancement of digital technology, decisionmakers constantly analyze past data and generate new data through the decisions they make. In this paper, we model this as a Markov decision process and show that the dynamic interaction between data generation and data analysis leads to a new type of bias -- reinforcement bias -- that exacerbates the endogeneity problem in standard data analysis. We propose a class of instrument variable (IV)-based reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms to correct for the bias and establish their asymptotic properties by incorporating them into a two-timescale stochastic approximation framework. A key contribution of the paper is the development of new techniques that allow for the analysis of the algorithms in general settings where noises feature time-dependency. We use the techniques to derive sharper results on finite-time trajectory stability bounds: with a polynomial rate, the entire future trajectory of the iterates from the algorithm fall within a ball that is centered at the true parameter and is shrinking at a (different) polynomial rate. We also use the technique to provide formulas for inferences that are rarely done for RL algorithms. These formulas highlight how the strength of the IV and the degree of the noises time dependency affect the inference.
Learning optimal policies from historical data enables the gains from personalization to be realized in a wide variety of applications. The growing policy learning literature focuses on a setting where the treatment assignment policy does not adapt to the data. However, adaptive data collection is becoming more common in practice, from two primary sources: 1) data collected from adaptive experiments that are designed to improve inferential efficiency; 2) data collected from production systems that are adaptively evolving an operational policy to improve performance over time (e.g. contextual bandits). In this paper, we aim to address the challenge of learning the optimal policy with adaptively collected data and provide one of the first theoretical inquiries into this problem. We propose an algorithm based on generalized augmented inverse propensity weighted estimators and establish its finite-sample regret bound. We complement this regret upper bound with a lower bound that characterizes the fundamental difficulty of policy learning with adaptive data. Finally, we demonstrate our algorithms effectiveness using both synthetic data and public benchmark datasets.