#dag

6 notes

• Back-door Criterion The Back-door Criterion (Pearl, 1993) is a graphical criterion for identifying a causal effect from observational data. It determines whether a set of variables $Z$ is sufficient to identify the causal effect of $X \rightarrow Y$.
• Collider A collider is a variable affected by both the treatment (X) and the outcome (Y) (a common effect). In the structure X → C ← Y, C is a collider.
• Confounder A confounder is a variable that affects both the treatment (X) and the outcome (Y) (a common cause), creating a spurious (non-causal) association between X and Y.
• d-separation d-separation (directional separation) is a graphical criterion in a DAG for determining whether two sets of variables are conditionally independent given a third set.
• DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) A DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) is a graph that visually represents the causal relationships among variables. It is a core tool in causal inference for grasping confounding structure and deciding an identification strategy.
• Mediator A mediator is an intermediate variable lying on the causal pathway through which a treatment (X) affects an outcome (Y). In the structure X → M → Y, M is the mediator.