Fisher’s Randomization Test

Let \(N\in \mathbb N\) be fixed, and let:

\(\mathbf Y(1),\,\mathbf Y(0)\in \mathbb R ^N\) be random vectors, with components \(Y_i(1),Y_i(0)\in \mathbb R\),
\(\mathbf Z\) be a random vector with components \(Z_i \in \{0,1\}\), independent from \(\mathbf Y(1)\) and \(\mathbf Y(0)\) above,
\(\mathbf Y = \mathbf Z\times \mathbf Y(1)+(1-\mathbf Z)\times \mathbf Y(0)\) (multiplication is component-wise).

Given a scalar function \(t = t(\mathbf Z, \,\mathbf Y)\in \mathbb R\), define:

\[ P(t,\mathbf Z, \mathbf Y)=\sum _{\mathbf Z '}\text{Pr}_\mathbf Z(\mathbf Z')\cdot I(t(\mathbf Z',\mathbf Y)\geq t(\mathbf Z,\mathbf Y)), \] where \(\text{Pr}_\mathbf Z(\cdot)\) is the marginal distribution of treatment assignments.

Theorem. If \(\mathbf Y(0) = \mathbf Y(1)\) then:

\[ \text{Pr}(P(t,\mathbf Z,\mathbf Y)\leq \alpha) \leq \alpha. \]

Proof. Let \(\mathbf Z'\) be distributed according to \(\text{Pr}_\mathbf Z(\cdot)\), and define \(\mathbf Y' = \mathbf Z'\times \mathbf Y(1)+(1-\mathbf Z')\times \mathbf Y(0)\). Given \(t_0\in \mathbb R\), we observe that:

\[ \text {Pr}(t(\mathbf Z',\mathbf Y')\geq t_0 \,\vert\,\mathbf Y(0),\,\mathbf Y(1)) = \sum _{\mathbf Z '}\text{Pr}_\mathbf Z(\mathbf Z')\cdot I(t(\mathbf Z',\mathbf Y')\geq t_0). \] Now, if \(\mathbf Y(0) = \mathbf Y(1)\), we have \(t(\mathbf Z',\mathbf Y') = t(\mathbf Z',\mathbf Y)\), so that we may replace \(\mathbf Y'\) with \(\mathbf Y\) in the RHS of the previous equation. If, moreover, we choose \(t_0= t(\mathbf Z , \mathbf Y)\) we obtain:

\[ P(t, \mathbf Z, \mathbf Y) = \text {Pr}(t(\mathbf Z',\mathbf Y')\geq t(\mathbf Z,\mathbf Y) \,\vert\,\mathbf Y(0),\mathbf Y(1)). \] In other words, \(P(t,\mathbf Z, \mathbf Y)\) is a conditional \(p\)-value. Therefore:

\[ \text{Pr}(P(t,\mathbf Z,\mathbf Y)\leq \alpha \,\vert\,\mathbf Y(0),\mathbf Y(1)) \leq \alpha. \]

Since this is valid for any value of \(\mathbf Y (0)\) and \(\mathbf Y(1)\), the thesis follows.

In the usual setting of causal inference, we interpret:

\(Z_i\) as the treatment assignment for the \(i\)-th statistical unit, \(Z_i = 0,1\) standing for “treatment” and “control”, respectively.
\(Y_i(1)\) and \(Y_i(0)\) as the potential outcomes for the \(i\)-th unit under treatment and control, respectively.
\(Y_i\) as the observed outcome for the \(i\)-th unit.
\(t(\cdot)\) as a test statistic used to test the null hypothesis \(\mathbf Y(1)= \mathbf Y (0)\).
\(P(t,\mathbf Z,\mathbf Y)\) is the randomization \(p\)-value of \(t(\mathbf Z, \mathbf Y)\) in a Fisher Randomization Test.

Fisher’s “sharp” null hypothesis is an equality between random variables, the potential outcomes. Typical examples for the distribution \(\text{Pr}_\mathbf Z(\cdot)\) are:

Completely Randomized Experiment (CRE):

\[ \text{Pr}_\mathbf Z (\mathbf Z) = \begin{cases} \binom N {n_1} ^{-1} & \sum _{i=1}^N Z_i =n_1, \\ 0 & \text{otherwise.} \end{cases} \]

Bernoulli Randomized Experiment (BRE):

\[ \text{Pr}_\mathbf Z (\mathbf Z) = \prod _{i=1} ^N \pi^{Z_i}(1-\pi)^{1-Z_i}. \]

An example of test statistic is the difference in means between the treatment and control group, that can be written:

\[ t(\mathbf Z , \mathbf Y) = \sum_i c_i Y_i,\qquad c_i=\frac{Z_i}{\sum _iZ_i} - \frac{1-Z_i}{\sum _i(1-Z_i)}. \]

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BibTeX citation:

@online{gherardi2023,
  author = {Gherardi, Valerio},
  title = {Fisher’s {Randomization} {Test}},
  date = {2023-06-07},
  url = {https://vgherard.github.io/posts/2023-06-07-fishers-randomization-test/},
  langid = {en}
}

For attribution, please cite this work as:

Gherardi, Valerio. 2023. “Fisher’s Randomization Test.” June 7, 2023. https://vgherard.github.io/posts/2023-06-07-fishers-randomization-test/.

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