English

Feature selection in stratification estimators of causal effects: lessons from potential outcomes, causal diagrams, and structural equations

Methodology 2022-09-26 v1 Machine Learning

Abstract

What is the ideal regression (if any) for estimating average causal effects? We study this question in the setting of discrete covariates, deriving expressions for the finite-sample variance of various stratification estimators. This approach clarifies the fundamental statistical phenomena underlying many widely-cited results. Our exposition combines insights from three distinct methodological traditions for studying causal effect estimation: potential outcomes, causal diagrams, and structural models with additive errors.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2209.11400,
  title  = {Feature selection in stratification estimators of causal effects: lessons from potential outcomes, causal diagrams, and structural equations},
  author = {P. Richard Hahn and Andrew Herren},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2209.11400},
  year   = {2022}
}