English

Structural causal models for macro-variables in time-series

Statistics Theory 2018-04-12 v1 Statistics Theory

Abstract

We consider a bivariate time series (Xt,Yt)(X_t,Y_t) that is given by a simple linear autoregressive model. Assuming that the equations describing each variable as a linear combination of past values are considered structural equations, there is a clear meaning of how intervening on one particular XtX_t influences YtY_{t'} at later times t>tt'>t. In the present work, we describe conditions under which one can define a causal model between variables that are coarse-grained in time, thus admitting statements like `setting XX to xx changes YY in a certain way' without referring to specific time instances. We show that particularly simple statements follow in the frequency domain, thus providing meaning to interventions on frequencies.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1804.03911,
  title  = {Structural causal models for macro-variables in time-series},
  author = {Dominik Janzing and Paul Rubenstein and Bernhard Schölkopf},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1804.03911},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

8 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-23T01:20:19.105Z