Several approaches to graphically representing context-specific relations among jointly distributed categorical variables have been proposed, along with structure learning algorithms. While existing optimization-based methods have limited scalability due to the large number of context-specific models, the constraint-based methods are more prone to error than even constraint-based DAG learning algorithms since more relations must be tested. We present a hybrid algorithm for learning context-specific models that scales to hundreds of variables while testing no more constraints than standard DAG learning algorithms. Scalable learning is achieved through a combination of an order-based MCMC algorithm and sparsity assumptions analogous to those typically invoked for DAG models. To implement the method, we solve a special case of an open problem recently posed by Alon and Balogh. The method is shown to perform well on synthetic data and real world examples, in terms of both accuracy and scalability.

We consider the problem of representation and learning of causal models that encode context-specific information for discrete data. To represent such models we define the class of CStrees. This class is a subclass of staged tree models that captures context-specific information in a DAG model by the use of a staged tree, or equivalently, by a collection of DAGs. We provide a characterization of the complete set of asymmetric conditional independence relations encoded by a CStree that generalizes the global Markov property for DAGs. As a consequence, we obtain a graphical characterization of model equivalence for CStrees generalizing that of Verma and Pearl for DAG models. We also provide a closed-form formula for the maximum likelihood estimator of a CStree and use it to show that the Bayesian Information Criterion is a locally consistent score function for this model class. We then use the theory for general interventions in staged tree models to provide a global Markov property and a characterization of model equivalence for general interventions in CStrees. As examples, we apply these results to two real data sets, learning BIC-optimal CStrees for each and analyzing their context-specific causal structure.