A treatment consequence is not interchangeable with a baseline covariate in an intention-to-treat analysis. Let randomized be independent of , and let actual intervention use be , with and independent centered errors. The assignment changes the mean outcome by one. But the conditional expectation has coefficient zero on . Thus adjustment for the post-randomization variable changes the estimand even in a simple identified linear regression.
Rao-Blackwellization Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-07
Replace an estimator by its conditional expectation given selected information. The mean is unchanged and the variance cannot increase, by the law of total variance. In simulation this produces conditional Monte Carlo estimators. Sufficiency is needed for the classical inferential strengthening, but not for the elementary variance reduction identity.
For two strictly positive zero-rate stock martingales with bounded volatilities and the same initial value, proportional terminal prices must be equal because their expectations coincide. Conditional expectation then makes the whole paths equal. Comparing their stochastic integrals by the Itô isometry gives equality of the volatility coefficients almost everywhere in time and probability. Perfect positive correlation alone does not provide the required proportionality.
For one integrable random variable , the family , over arbitrary sigma-algebras , has uniform integrability. On , the defining property of conditional expectation gives , while by the Markov inequality. The integrable random variable has uniformly small absolute integrals over events of sufficiently small probability.