Machine Learning-Augmented Coarsened Exact Matching (ML-CEM)

Machine Learning-Augmented Coarsened Exact Matching extends Coarsened Exact Matching (Iacus, King & Porro, 2012) by using supervised machine learning to automate and optimise the coarsening step — the discretisation of continuous covariates into bins — rather than relying on researcher-specified cutpoints. This reduces both ad hoc subjectivity in coarsening decisions and residual imbalance, while preserving CEM's core logic of exact matching within coarsened strata.