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arXiv 1709.01577stat.ME
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网络因果效应的自动G计算

Auto-G-Computation of Causal Effects on a Network

Eric J. Tchetgen Tchetgen, Isabel Fulcher, Ilya Shpitser

摘要:

推断平均因果效应的方法传统上依赖于两个关键假设:(i)一个单位接受的干预不能对另一个单位的结果产生因果影响;(ii)单位可以被组织成非重叠的组,使得单独组中单位的结果是独立的。在本文中,我们开发了新的统计方法,因果推断的基础上,一个单一的实现网络的连接单元,既不假设(i)和(ii)举行。所提出的方法允许任意形式的干扰,由此单元的结果可以取决于通过连接单元的网络路径与其存在的其他单元接收的干预;以及长距离依赖性,由此同样通过网络中的路径连接的任何两个单元的结果可以是依赖的。在网络版本的一致性和没有未观察到的混淆,推理是通过假设网络的结果,治疗和协变量向量是一个单一的实现一定的链图模型。该假设允许通过自动g计算算法来推断各种网络因果效应,自动g计算算法是先前针对假设(i)和(ii)下的因果推断描述的Robins的众所周知的g计算算法的网络推广。

英文摘要:

Methods for inferring average causal effects have traditionally relied on two key assumptions: (i) the intervention received by one unit cannot causally influence the outcome of another; and (ii) units can be organized into non-overlapping groups such that outcomes of units in separate groups are independent. In this paper, we develop new statistical methods for causal inference based on a single realization of a network of connected units for which neither assumption (i) nor (ii) holds. The proposed approach allows both for arbitrary forms of interference, whereby the outcome of a unit may depend on interventions received by other units with whom a network path through connected units exists; and long range dependence, whereby outcomes for any two units likewise connected by a path in the network may be dependent. Under network versions of consistency and no unobserved confounding, inference is made tractable by an assumption that the network's outcome, treatment and covariate vectors are a single realization of a certain chain graph model. This assumption allows inferences about various network causal effects via the auto-g-computation algorithm, a network generalization of Robins' well-known g-computation algorithm previously described for causal inference under assumptions (i) and (ii).

机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来,可能存在错误,请以论文正文为准。

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