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Kai Z. Teh

Publications and source records attributed to Kai Z. Teh.

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Interpretable Causal Graphical Models for Equilibrium Systems with Confounding

In applications, quantities of interest are often modelled in equilibrium or an equilibrium solution is sought. The presence of confounding makes causal inference in this setting challenging. We provide interpretable graphical models for equilibrium systems with confounding using anterial graphs (Lauritzen and Sadeghi, 2018), a class of graphs containing directed acyclic graphs, ancestral graphs, and chain graphs. In this setting, we provide valid graphical representations of both counterfactual variables and observational variables, which we relate to counterfactual graphs (Shpitser and Pearl, 2007) and single-world intervention graphs (Richardson and Robins,2013). As an application of this graphical representation, we provide an element-wise procedure of selecting adjustment sets that flexibly include and exclude given covariates.

stat.ME

A General Framework on Conditions for Constraint-based Causal Learning

Most constraint-based causal learning algorithms provably return the correct causal graph under certain correctness conditions, such as faithfulness. By representing any constraint-based causal learning algorithm using the notion of a property, we provide a general framework to obtain and study correctness conditions for these algorithms. From the framework, we provide exact correctness conditions for the PC algorithm, which are then related to the correctness conditions of some other existing causal discovery algorithms. The framework also suggests a paradigm for designing causal learning algorithms which allows for the correctness conditions of algorithms to be controlled for before designing the actual algorithm, and has the following implications. We show that the sparsest Markov representation condition is the weakest correctness condition for algorithms that output ancestral graphs or directed acyclic graphs satisfying any existing notions of minimality. We also reason that Pearl-minimality is necessary for meaningful causal learning but not sufficient to relax the faithfulness condition and, as such, has to be strengthened, such as by including background knowledge, for causal learning beyond faithfulness.

cs.AI

Towards Robust Causal Effect Identification Beyond Markov Equivalence

Causal effect identification typically requires a fully specified causal graph, which can be difficult to obtain in practice. We provide a sufficient criterion for identifying causal effects from a candidate set of Markov equivalence classes with added background knowledge, which represents cases where determining the causal graph up to a single Markov equivalence class is challenging. Such cases can happen, for example, when the untestable assumptions (e.g. faithfulness) that underlie causal discovery algorithms do not hold.

stat.ME