Estimating Treatment Effects with Causal Forests: An Application

We apply causal forests to a dataset derived from the National Study of Learning Mindsets, and discusses resulting practical and conceptual challenges.This note will appear in an upcoming issue of Observational Studies, Empirical Investigation of Methods for Heterogeneity, that compiles several analyses of the same dataset.1.According to the National Study, “A growth mindset is the belief that intelligence can be developed.Students with a growth mindset understand they can get smarter through hard work, the use of effective strategies, and help from others when needed.It is contrasted with a fixed mindset: the belief that intelligence is a fixed trait that is set in stone at birth.” 2. Initially, 139 schools were recruited into the study using a stratified probability sampling method (Gopalan and Tipton, 2018).Of these 139 recruited schools, 76 agreed to participate in the study; then, students were c 2019 Susan Athey and Stefan Wager.