Inference for an Algorithmic Fairness-Accuracy Frontier

Abstract:
Decision-making processes increasingly rely on the use of algorithms. Yet, algorithms' predictive ability frequently exhibits systematic variation across subgroups of the population. While both fairness and accuracy are desirable properties of an algorithm, they often come at the cost of one another, with policymakers needing to assess this trade-off based on finite data.   We provide a consistent estimator for a theoretical fairness-accuracy frontier put forward in the recent Economics literature, derive its asymptotic distribution, and propose inference methods to test hypotheses that have received much attention in the fairness literature, such as (i) whether fully excluding group identity from use in training the algorithm is optimal and (ii) whether there are less discriminatory alternatives to an existing algorithm. We also provide an estimator for the distance between a given algorithm and the fairest point on the frontier and characterize its asymptotic distribution.  

Bio:
Francesca Molinari is a H. T. Warshow and Robert Irving Warshow Professor in the Department of Economics at Cornell University. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Economics at Northwestern University after obtaining a BA and Masters in Economics at the Università degli Studi di Torino (Italy). Francesca’s research interests are in econometrics, both theoretical and applied. Her theoretical work is concerned with the study of identification problems and with proposing new methods for statistical inference in partially identified models. In her applied work, she has focused primarily on the analysis of decision making under risk and uncertainty. Francesca has worked on the estimation of risk preferences using market-level data and on the analysis of individuals' probabilistic expectations using survey data. She is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and the International Association for Applied Econometrics and a former Joint Managing Editor of the Review of Economic Studies.
Francesca is currently serving as Coeditor at the Journal of Political Economy.