Bi-Level Contextual Bandits for Individualized Resource Allocation under Delayed Feedback

The article discusses a novel bi-level contextual bandit framework aimed at individualized resource allocation in high-stakes domains such as education, employment, and healthcare. This framework addresses the challenges of delayed feedback, hidden heterogeneity, and ethical constraints, which are often overlooked in traditional learning-based allocation methods. The proposed model optimizes budget allocations at the subgroup level while identifying responsive individuals using a neural network trained on observational data.