Causal Inference Using Machine Learning

Finding causal relationships is the most profound motivation behind research in various disciplines. However, our toolbox of computational methods for causal inference has remained limited for a long time. Better computational methods for causal inference can change the way that we conduct research and have the potential to revolutionize science by expediting scientific discoveries and cutting costs.

Microsoft DoWhy is an Open Source Framework for Causal Reasoning

The human mind has a remarkable ability to associate causes with a specific event. From the outcome of an election to an object dropping on the floor, we are constantly associating chains of events that cause a specific effect. Neuropsychology refers to this cognitive ability as causal reasoning. Computer science and economics study a specific form of causal reasoning known as causal inference which focuses on exploring relationships between two observed variables. Over the years, machine learning has produced many methods for causal inference but they remain mostly difficult to use in mainstream applications.

Causal programming: inference with structural causal models as finding instances of a relation

This paper proposes a causal inference relation and causal programming as general frameworks for causal inference with structural causal models. A tuple, $\langle M, I, Q, F \rangle$, is an instance of the relation if a formula, $F$, computes a causal query, $Q$, as a function of known population probabilities, $I$, in every model entailed by a set of model assumptions, $M$. Many problems in causal inference can be viewed as the problem of enumerating instances of the relation that satisfy given criteria. This unifies a number of previously studied problems, including causal effect identification, causal discovery and recovery from selection bias. In addition, the relation supports formalizing new problems in causal inference with structural causal models, such as the problem of research design. Causal programming is proposed as a further generalization of causal inference as the problem of finding optimal instances of the relation, with respect to a cost function.

Dynamic Causal Calculus

We introduce dynamic causal calculus, a nonmonotonic formalism that can be viewed as a direct logical counterpart of the action description language C+. We formulate a nonmonotonic semantics of the associated causal language, and compare this semantics with the indirect, two-stage semantics for C+, given in (Giunchiglia et al 2004). It will be shown, in particular, that the suggested semantics allows us to alleviate syntactic distinctions between propositional atoms, maintained by C+, as well as type restrictions imposed on its causal laws. We will describe also a logical formalism of dynamic causal inference that constitutes a complete description of the logic that is adequate for this dynamic calculus.

On Logics and Semantics of Indeterminate Causation

We will explore the use of disjunctive causal rules for representing indeterminate causation. We provide first a logical formalization of such rules in the form of a disjunctive inference relation, and describe its logical semantics. Then we consider a nonmonotonic semantics for such rules, described in (Turner 1999). It will be shown, however, that, under this semantics, disjunctive causal rules admit a stronger logic in which these rules are reducible to ordinary, singular causal rules. This semantics also tends to give an exclusive interpretation of disjunctive causal effects, and so excludes some reasonable models in particular cases. To overcome these shortcomings, we will introduce an alternative nonmonotonic semantics for disjunctive causal rules, called a covering semantics, that permits an inclusive interpretation of indeterminate causal information. Still, it will be shown that even in this case there exists a systematic procedure, that we will call a normalization, that allows us to capture precisely the covering semantics using only singular causal rules. This normalization procedure can be viewed as a kind of nonmonotonic completion, and it generalizes established ways of representing indeterminate effects in current theories of action.