arXiv Machine Learning

Across-Design Uncertainty in Short Pricing Panels: Inference and Identification

arXiv AI
Aug 28

Selection Bias Correction in Retail Intelligence

The paper examines how retail intelligence, which often focuses on high‑velocity products, can suffer from selection bias that skews inflation estimates by overlooking niche items. Using 400 Monte Carlo simulations across four data‑generating scenarios, the authors compare Inverse Probability Weighting (IPW) and stratification methods. They find that stratification generally outperforms IPW—achieving sub‑0.04 percentage‑point median error even when population breaks misalign—while IPW only excels under smooth polynomial relationships, highlighting the importance of method choice in long‑tail retail contexts.

By Spandan Ghose Chowdhury
arXiv AI
Sep 24

Beyond the Illusion of Power: Calibrating Quasi-Experiments in Observational IS

Information systems researchers increasingly rely on quasi‑experimental methods such as difference‑in‑differences and instrumental variables to infer causal effects from observational panel data. A large Monte Carlo study of 9,837 parameter settings (≈9.8 million simulated datasets) shows that the gap between planned and achieved power is largely driven by serial correlation, panel attrition, staggered adoption bias, and parallel‑trend pre‑testing—factors that no closed‑form power calculator can fully capture. For IV designs, increasing sample size does not improve power or reduce exclusion bias unless instrument strength is enhanced, underscoring that identification hinges on the instrument rather than on larger N.

By Spandan Ghose Chowdhury
arXiv AI
Jun 9

Supracompetitive Pricing Under AI Monoculture

arXiv:2601. 01279v3 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: When competing sellers delegate pricing to a shared AI model, such as a large language model, correlated recommendations combined with performance-driven updates aggregating seller feedback raise a key question: can standard AI deployment practices inadvertently produce supracompetitive pricing?

By Shengyu Cao, Ming Hu
arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 13

FunnelCausalNet: Funnel-aware Joint Conversion-Revenue Uplift for Multi-tier Coupon Allocation

arXiv:2608. 11675v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Coupon campaigns seek to lift both conversion and revenue, but gross merchandise value (GMV) follows a deterministic funnel from conversion to conditional order value and is zero-inflated and heavy-tailed.

By Yu Zhang (AMap Alibaba Group, Beijing, China), Zhihan Wang (AMap Alibaba Group, Beijing, China), Guanlin Chen (AMap Alibaba Group, Beijing, China), Min Jiang (AMap Alibaba Group, Beijing, China), Shuai Li (AMap Alibaba Group, Beijing, China)
arXiv Computation and Language
Sep 1

LLP: LLM-Based Product Pricing in E-commerce

The paper introduces LLP, a Large Language Model–based generative framework for pricing second‑hand products on consumer‑to‑consumer platforms. LLP retrieves similar items to capture market dynamics, then uses LLMs to generate price suggestions, refined through supervised fine‑tuning and group relative policy optimization. A confidence‑based filter rejects unreliable predictions, and experiments show LLP outperforms prior methods, achieving higher static adoption rates when deployed on Xianyu.

By Hairu Wang, Sheng You, Qiheng Zhang, Xike Xie, Shuguang Han, Yuchen Wu, Fei Huang, Jufeng Chen
arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 20

When Does Dynamic Ensembling Pay Off? Diagnosing Regionwise Gains in Regression under Distribution Shift

The paper introduces “ℝD_{CF5}”, a probe‑based estimator that predicts the region‑wise gain of a dynamic ensemble over the best static blend in regression tasks under distribution shift. Across 12 benchmark dataset‑shift pairs, the estimator achieves a Spearman correlation of +0.98 with actual test gains, outperforming alternative diagnostics. The authors also present a Probe‑Validated Ensemble Selector that chooses between a static affine stacker and dynamic realizers, demonstrating risk reductions of up to 16% in prospective deployments.

By Tianxin Zhou, Ruixi Lin