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Essays on Causal Mechanism and Causal Generalization
Essays on Causal Mechanism and Causal Generalization
상세정보
- 자료유형
- 학위논문 서양
- 최종처리일시
- 20250211151102
- ISBN
- 9798383166055
- DDC
- 320
- 저자명
- Fu, Jiawei.
- 서명/저자
- Essays on Causal Mechanism and Causal Generalization
- 발행사항
- [Sl] : New York University, 2024
- 발행사항
- Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2024
- 형태사항
- 177 p
- 주기사항
- Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 85-12, Section: A.
- 주기사항
- Advisor: Landa, Dimitri;Slough, Tara.
- 학위논문주기
- Thesis (Ph.D.)--New York University, 2024.
- 초록/해제
- 요약The credibility revolution advances the use of research designs that permit identification and estimation of causal effects. However, understanding which mechanisms produce measured causal effects remains a challenge. A dominant current approach to the quantitative evaluation of mechanisms relies on the detection of heterogeneous treatment effects with respect to pre-treatment covariates. Chapter 3 develops a framework to understand when the existence of such heterogeneous treatment effects can support inferences about the activation of a mechanism. We show first that this design cannot provide evidence of mechanism activation without additional, generally implicit, assumptions. Further, even when these assumptions are satisfied, if a measured outcome is produced by a non-linear transformation of a directly-affected outcome of theoretical interest, heterogeneous treatment effects are not informative of mechanism activation. We provide novel guidance for interpretation and research design in light of these findings.Understanding causal mechanisms is essential for explaining and generalizing empirical phenomena. Causal mediation analysis offers statistical techniques to quantify mediation effects. However, existing methods typically require strong identification assumptions or sophisticated research designs. In Chapter 1, we develop a novel identification strategy that simplifies these assumptions, enabling the simultaneous estimation of causal and mediation effects. The strategy is based on a new decomposition of total treatment effects, which transforms the challenging mediation problem into a simple linear regression problem. We demonstrate that the primary source of identification power resides in the heterogeneous treatment effects on the mediator. To illustrate the efficacy of our method, we apply it to estimate the causal mediation effects in two studies, focusing on common pool resource governance and voting information. Furthermore, we have developed statistical software to facilitate the implementation of our method.Can causal effects estimated in experiment be generalized to real-world scenarios? This question lies at the heart of social science studies, where the ultimate concern is the real-life impact of research findings. External validity primarily assesses whether experimental effects persist across different settings, including populations, treatments, outcomes, and contexts, implicitly presuming the experiment's ecological validity-that is, the consistency of experimental effects with their real-life counterparts even without dramatic varying those settings. However, we argue that this presumed consistency may not always hold, especially in experiments involving multi-dimensional decision processes, such as conjoint survey experiments. In Chapter 2, we introduce a formal model to elucidate how attention and salience effects lead to three types of inconsistencies between experimental findings and real-world phenomena: amplified effect magnitude, effect sign reversal, and effect relative importance reversal. We derive testable hypotheses from each theoretical outcome and test these hypotheses using data from various existing conjoint experiments. Drawing on our theoretical framework, we propose several guidelines for experimental design aimed at enhancing the generalizability of survey experiment findings.
- 일반주제명
- Political science
- 기타저자
- New York University Politics
- 기본자료저록
- Dissertations Abstracts International. 85-12A.
- 전자적 위치 및 접속
- 로그인 후 원문을 볼 수 있습니다.
MARC
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■020 ▼a9798383166055
■035 ▼a(MiAaPQ)AAI31143052
■040 ▼aMiAaPQ▼cMiAaPQ
■0820 ▼a320
■1001 ▼aFu, Jiawei.
■24510▼aEssays on Causal Mechanism and Causal Generalization
■260 ▼a[Sl]▼bNew York University▼c2024
■260 1▼aAnn Arbor▼bProQuest Dissertations & Theses▼c2024
■300 ▼a177 p
■500 ▼aSource: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 85-12, Section: A.
■500 ▼aAdvisor: Landa, Dimitri;Slough, Tara.
■5021 ▼aThesis (Ph.D.)--New York University, 2024.
■520 ▼aThe credibility revolution advances the use of research designs that permit identification and estimation of causal effects. However, understanding which mechanisms produce measured causal effects remains a challenge. A dominant current approach to the quantitative evaluation of mechanisms relies on the detection of heterogeneous treatment effects with respect to pre-treatment covariates. Chapter 3 develops a framework to understand when the existence of such heterogeneous treatment effects can support inferences about the activation of a mechanism. We show first that this design cannot provide evidence of mechanism activation without additional, generally implicit, assumptions. Further, even when these assumptions are satisfied, if a measured outcome is produced by a non-linear transformation of a directly-affected outcome of theoretical interest, heterogeneous treatment effects are not informative of mechanism activation. We provide novel guidance for interpretation and research design in light of these findings.Understanding causal mechanisms is essential for explaining and generalizing empirical phenomena. Causal mediation analysis offers statistical techniques to quantify mediation effects. However, existing methods typically require strong identification assumptions or sophisticated research designs. In Chapter 1, we develop a novel identification strategy that simplifies these assumptions, enabling the simultaneous estimation of causal and mediation effects. The strategy is based on a new decomposition of total treatment effects, which transforms the challenging mediation problem into a simple linear regression problem. We demonstrate that the primary source of identification power resides in the heterogeneous treatment effects on the mediator. To illustrate the efficacy of our method, we apply it to estimate the causal mediation effects in two studies, focusing on common pool resource governance and voting information. Furthermore, we have developed statistical software to facilitate the implementation of our method.Can causal effects estimated in experiment be generalized to real-world scenarios? This question lies at the heart of social science studies, where the ultimate concern is the real-life impact of research findings. External validity primarily assesses whether experimental effects persist across different settings, including populations, treatments, outcomes, and contexts, implicitly presuming the experiment's ecological validity-that is, the consistency of experimental effects with their real-life counterparts even without dramatic varying those settings. However, we argue that this presumed consistency may not always hold, especially in experiments involving multi-dimensional decision processes, such as conjoint survey experiments. In Chapter 2, we introduce a formal model to elucidate how attention and salience effects lead to three types of inconsistencies between experimental findings and real-world phenomena: amplified effect magnitude, effect sign reversal, and effect relative importance reversal. We derive testable hypotheses from each theoretical outcome and test these hypotheses using data from various existing conjoint experiments. Drawing on our theoretical framework, we propose several guidelines for experimental design aimed at enhancing the generalizability of survey experiment findings.
■590 ▼aSchool code: 0146.
■650 4▼aPolitical science
■653 ▼aCausal mechanisms
■653 ▼aConjoint experiments
■653 ▼aExperimental design
■653 ▼aHeterogeneous treatment effects
■690 ▼a0615
■690 ▼a0510
■71020▼aNew York University▼bPolitics.
■7730 ▼tDissertations Abstracts International▼g85-12A.
■790 ▼a0146
■791 ▼aPh.D.
■792 ▼a2024
■793 ▼aEnglish
■85640▼uhttp://www.riss.kr/pdu/ddodLink.do?id=T17160694▼nKERIS▼z이 자료의 원문은 한국교육학술정보원에서 제공합니다.


