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Field Before After
Trial Status on_going completed
Last Published November 22, 2020 02:01 PM July 02, 2021 01:00 PM
Study Withdrawn No
Data Collection Complete Yes
Keyword(s) Welfare Welfare
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Papers

Field Before After
Paper Abstract An increasing number of decisions are guided by machine learning algorithms. In many settings, from consumer credit to criminal justice, those decisions are made by applying an estimator to data on an individual's observed behavior. But when consequential decisions are encoded in rules, individuals may strategically alter their behavior to achieve desired outcomes. This paper develops a new class of estimator that is stable under manipulation, even when the decision rule is fully transparent. We explicitly model the costs of manipulating different behaviors, and identify decision rules that are stable in equilibrium. Through a large field experiment in Kenya, we show that decision rules estimated with our strategy-robust method outperform those based on standard supervised learning approaches.
Paper Citation Björkegren, D., Blumenstock, J. E., & Knight, S. (2020). Manipulation-Proof Machine Learning. ArXiv:2004.03865 [Cs, Econ]. http://arxiv.org/abs/2004.03865
Paper URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2004.03865
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