Effectiveness of propensity score methods with density estimation in identifying overlap for causal inference

For causal inference, sufficient overlap is needed. It is possible to use propensity scores with the positivity assumption to ensure overlap is present. However, positivity is not enough to properly identify the region of overlap. For this, propensity scores need to be used in combination with density estimation. This project aims to evaluate...

An empirical study of the effects of unconfoundedness on the performance of Propensity Score Matching

The purpose of this research is to analyze the performance of Propensity Score Matching, a causal inference method for causal effect estimation. More specifically, investigate how Propensity Score Matching reacts to breaking the unconfoundedness assumption, one of its core conceptual pillars. This has been achieved by running PSM on synthetic...

When Machine Learning Models Leak: An Exploration of Synthetic Training Data

We investigate an attack on a machine learning classifier that predicts the propensity of a person or household to move (i.e., relocate) in the next two years. The attack assumes that the classifier has been made publically available and that the attacker has access to information about a certain number of target individuals. That attacker...

A formal framework for reasoning about opportunistic propensity in multi-agent systems

Opportunism is an intentional behavior that takes advantage of knowledge asymmetry and results in promoting agents’ own value and demoting others’ value. It is important to eliminate such selfish behavior in multi-agent systems, as it has undesirable results for the participating agents. In order for monitoring and eliminating mechanisms to...

Measuring Innovation and the Propensity to Patent

Patents are often taken as an indicator to measure innovativeness, because they are a lot easier to obtain than most others. There is a complication though, which is that patents are not a direct measure of innovativeness: the fit between patents and innovativeness is biased by differing propensities to patent. The propensity to patent was...