Allocation Requires Prediction Only if Inequality Is Low
2024
Conference Paper
sf
Algorithmic predictions are emerging as a promising solution concept for efficiently allocating societal resources. Fueling their use is an underlying assumption that such systems are necessary to identify individuals for interventions. We propose a principled framework for assessing this assumption: Using a simple mathematical model, we evaluate the efficacy of prediction-based allocations in settings where individuals belong to larger units such as hospitals, neighborhoods, or schools. We find that prediction-based allocations outperform baseline methods using aggregate unit-level statistics only when between-unit inequality is low and the intervention budget is high. Our results hold for a wide range of settings for the price of prediction, treatment effect heterogeneity, and unit-level statistics’ learnability. Combined, we highlight the potential limits to improving the efficacy of interventions through prediction
Author(s): | Shirali, Ali and Abebe, Rediet and Hardt, Moritz |
Book Title: | Proceedings of the 41st International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) |
Pages: | 45114--45153 |
Year: | 2024 |
Month: | July |
Series: | Proceedings of Machine Learning Research |
Editors: | Salakhutdinov, Ruslan and Kolter, Zico and Heller, Katherine and Weller, Adrian and Oliver, Nuria and Scarlett, Jonathan and Berkenkamp, Felix |
Publisher: | PMLR |
Department(s): | Soziale Grundlagen der Informatik |
Bibtex Type: | Conference Paper (conference) |
Note: | equal contribution |
State: | Published |
URL: | https://proceedings.mlr.press/v235/shirali24a.html |
Links: |
ArXiv
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BibTex @conference{pmlr-v235-shirali24a, title = {Allocation Requires Prediction Only if Inequality Is Low}, author = {Shirali, Ali and Abebe, Rediet and Hardt, Moritz}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 41st International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML)}, pages = {45114--45153}, series = {Proceedings of Machine Learning Research}, editors = {Salakhutdinov, Ruslan and Kolter, Zico and Heller, Katherine and Weller, Adrian and Oliver, Nuria and Scarlett, Jonathan and Berkenkamp, Felix}, publisher = {PMLR}, month = jul, year = {2024}, note = {equal contribution}, doi = {}, url = {https://proceedings.mlr.press/v235/shirali24a.html}, month_numeric = {7} } |