Regression modelQuasi-experimental / causal inference

Entropy Balancing

Entropy balancing is a preprocessing method for causal inference that assigns weights to control-group units so that the reweighted control sample matches the treatment group exactly on a chosen set of covariate moments (means, variances, skewness). Introduced by Hainmueller (2012), it replaces trial-and-error propensity-score trimming with a constrained maximum-entropy optimisation that achieves balance in a single step.

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Sources

  1. Hainmueller, J. (2012). Entropy balancing for causal effects: A multivariate reweighting method to produce balanced samples in observational studies. Political Analysis, 20(1), 25-46. DOI: 10.1093/pan/mpr025
  2. Zhao, Q., & Coey, D. (2017). Entropy balancing is doubly robust. Journal of Causal Inference, 5(1). (Working paper version widely cited; see also Zhao & Coey 2018, Stanford GSB Research Paper.) link

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Referenced by

ScholarGateEntropy Balancing (Entropy Balancing for Causal Effects). Retrieved 2026-06-04 from https://scholargate.app/en/causal-inference/entropy-balancing