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Title: Experimental evaluation of algorithm-assisted human decision-making: application to pretrial public safety assessment*
Abstract Despite an increasing reliance on fully-automated algorithmic decision-making in our day-to-day lives, humans still make consequential decisions. While the existing literature focuses on the bias and fairness of algorithmic recommendations, an overlooked question is whether they improve human decisions. We develop a general statistical methodology for experimentally evaluating the causal impacts of algorithmic recommendations on human decisions. We also examine whether algorithmic recommendations improve the fairness of human decisions and derive the optimal decision rules under various settings. We apply the proposed methodology to the first-ever randomized controlled trial that evaluates the pretrial Public Safety Assessment in the United States criminal justice system. Our analysis of the preliminary data shows that providing the PSA to the judge has little overall impact on the judge’s decisions and subsequent arrestee behaviour.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2051196
PAR ID:
10414521
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Oxford University Press
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A: Statistics in Society
Volume:
186
Issue:
2
ISSN:
0964-1998
Format(s):
Medium: X Size: p. 167-189
Size(s):
p. 167-189
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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