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Optimal multilevel matching using network flows: An application to a summer reading intervention

Samuel D. Pimentel,Lindsay C. Page,M. Lenard,L. Keele

Published 2018 in Annals of Applied Statistics

ABSTRACT

Author(s): Pimentel, SD; Page, LC; Lenard, M; Keele, L | Abstract: © Institute of Mathematical Statistics, 2018. Many observational studies of causal effects occur in settings with clustered treatment assignment. In studies of this type, treatment is applied to entire clusters of units. For example, an educational intervention might be administered to all the students in a school. We develop a matching algorithm for multilevel data based on a network flow algorithm. Earlier work on multilevel matching relied on integer programming, which allows for balance targeting on specific covariates but can be slow with larger data sets. Although we cannot directly specify minimal levels of balance for individual covariates, our algorithm is fast and scales easily to larger data sets. We apply this algorithm to assess a school-based intervention through which students in treated schools were exposed to a new reading program during summer school. In one variant of the algorithm, where we match both schools and students, we change the causal estimand through optimal subset matching to better maintain common support. In a second variant, we relax the common support assumption to preserve the causal estimand by only matching on schools. We find that the summer intervention does not appear to increase reading test scores. In a sensitivity analysis, however, we determine that an unobserved confounder could easily mask a larger treatment effect.

PUBLICATION RECORD

  • Publication year

    2018

  • Venue

    Annals of Applied Statistics

  • Publication date

    2018-09-01

  • Fields of study

    Mathematics, Computer Science, Education

  • Identifiers
    DOI 10.1214/17-AOAS1118
  • External record

    Open on Semantic Scholar

  • Source metadata

    Semantic Scholar

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