#  Davide Viviano (Workshop in Applied Statistics) 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **September 13, 2023** 

 12:00PM - 01:30PM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **CGIS Knafel, room K354 or Online via Zoom**  



 

 



 

##  This Week's Speaker

 Davide Viviano (Department of Economics), "Policy targeting under interference"

##  Abstract

 This paper studies the problem of optimally allocating treatments in the presence of spillover effects, using information from a (quasi-)experiment. I introduce a method that maximizes the sample analog of average social welfare when spillovers occur. I construct semi-parametric welfare estimators with known and unknown propensity scores and cast the optimization problem into a mixed-integer linear program, which can be solved using off-the-shelf algorithms. I derive a strong set of guarantees on regret, i.e., the difference between the maximum attainable welfare and the welfare evaluated at the estimated policy. The proposed method presents attractive features for applications: (i) it does not require network information of the target population; (ii) it exploits heterogeneity in treatment effects for targeting individuals; (iii) it does not rely on the correct specification of a particular structural model; and (iv) it accommodates constraints on the policy function. An application for targeting information on social networks illustrates the advantages of the method.

 Paper: [https://dviviano.github.io/projects/main\_text\_NEWM\_Jan2023.pdf](https://dviviano.github.io/projects/main_text_NEWM_Jan2023.pdf)

 *The Applied Statistics Workshop (Gov 3009) meets all academic year, Wednesdays, 12pm-1:30pm, in CGIS K354. This workshop is a forum for advanced graduate students, faculty, and visiting scholars to present and discuss methodological or empirical work in progress in an interdisciplinary setting. The workshop features a tour of Harvard's statistical innovations and applications with weekly stops in different fields and disciplines and includes occasional presentations by invited speakers.*

 *More information is available at the Gov 3009 website: <https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/applied.stats.workshop-gov3009>*

 *All interested Harvard affiliates are invited to attend.*



 

 



 

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