Commentary on Rubin and Rosenbaum Seminal 1983 Paper on Propensity Scores: From Then to Now

Rubin and Rosenbaum (1983) wrote about the theory and application of “propensity scores” in their landmark paper. Since that time, the method has still been in use or adapted for use in various contexts. In this commentary, I discuss their original paper and the latest in terms of criticisms and defense of the use of some of the theory they proposed for propensity score matching. Although the commentary is not exhaustive, I try to highlight important aspects of their theory as well as points made later for and against some of their originally proposed theory.