Doubly-Robust Estimation of Counterfactual Policy Mean Embeddings

Houssam Zenati, Bariscan Bozkurt, Arthur Gretton

Keywords: off-policy evaluation; causal inference; doubly robust; kernel mean embeddings; kernel two sample tests;

Abstract: Estimating the distribution of outcomes under counterfactual policies is critical for decision-making in domains such as recommendation, advertising, and healthcare. We propose and analyze a novel framework—Counterfactual Policy Mean Embedding (CPME)—that represents the entire counterfactual outcome distribution in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS), enabling flexible and nonparametric distributional off-policy evaluation. We introduce both a plug-in estimator and a doubly robust estimator; the latter enjoys improved convergence rates by correcting for bias in both the outcome embedding and propensity models. Building on this, we develop a doubly robust kernel test statistic for hypothesis testing, which achieves asymptotic normality and thus enables computationally efficient testing and straightforward construction of confidence intervals. Our framework also supports sampling from the counterfactual distribution. Numerical simulations illustrate the practical benefits of CPME over existing methods.

Primary Area: Probabilistic methods (e.g., variational inference, causal inference, Gaussian processes)

Submission Number: 22518