Skip to main content
7 events
when toggle format what by license comment
Feb 3, 2015 at 3:14 comment added N Brouwer Gelman and Hills multilevel modeling book has a pretty good chapter on causal inference.
Jun 25, 2013 at 16:48 vote accept Tim
Jun 25, 2013 at 9:39 comment added Glen_b @NickCox Indeed; there are models that are used as a basis by which to infer causality, which are at least suggestive of causality (by satisfying some of the notions of classical causality like notional effects being subsequent to cause -- requiring a time dimension!). e.g. Granger-causality has predictive power and is suggestive of causality in that sense - but could have both left and right sides caused by a 3rd variable. Since the question wasn't about models with such a time-element (at least not specifically), I didn't address that. To show actual causality requires careful experiments.
Jun 25, 2013 at 8:41 comment added Nick Cox +1. Juxtapose this neat comment from @Glen_b and the answer by Andy and you get a spectrum of opinion on the question. For many econometricians and some others, such and such set-up they define as being "causal", regardless of other meanings. For many others, what is causal is a matter of what is happening out there (e.g. in terms of mechanisms), and not defined mathematically at all. There are books and books and books on this....
Jun 25, 2013 at 5:15 comment added Glen_b There's nothing inherent in those models that makes them causal. Causality, in respect of such models -- if it's inferred at all -- comes from other considerations than the models.
Jun 24, 2013 at 20:39 answer added Andy timeline score: 9
Jun 24, 2013 at 18:51 history asked Tim CC BY-SA 3.0