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DirectLiNGAM: A Direct Method for Learning a Linear Non-Gaussian Structural Equation Model

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TLDR
In this article, a non-Gaussianity-based method is proposed to estimate the causal ordering and connection strength of a linear acyclic model, which is guaranteed to converge to the right solution within a fixed number of steps if the data strictly follows the model.
Abstract
Structural equation models and Bayesian networks have been widely used to analyze causal relations between continuous variables. In such frameworks, linear acyclic models are typically used to model the data-generating process of variables. Recently, it was shown that use of non-Gaussianity identifies the full structure of a linear acyclic model, that is, a causal ordering of variables and their connection strengths, without using any prior knowledge on the network structure, which is not the case with conventional methods. However, existing estimation methods are based on iterative search algorithms and may not converge to a correct solution in a finite number of steps. In this paper, we propose a new direct method to estimate a causal ordering and connection strengths based on non-Gaussianity. In contrast to the previous methods, our algorithm requires no algorithmic parameters and is guaranteed to converge to the right solution within a small fixed number of steps if the data strictly follows the model, that is, if all the model assumptions are met and the sample size is infinite.

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Causal inference using invariant prediction: identification and confidence intervals

TL;DR: This work proposes to exploit invariance of a prediction under a causal model for causal inference: given different experimental settings (e.g. various interventions) the authors collect all models that do show invariance in their predictive accuracy across settings and interventions, and yields valid confidence intervals for the causal relationships in quite general scenarios.
Journal ArticleDOI

Review of Causal Discovery Methods Based on Graphical Models.

TL;DR: This paper aims to give a introduction to and a brief review of the computational methods for causal discovery that were developed in the past three decades, including constraint-based and score-based methods and those based on functional causal models, supplemented by some illustrations and applications.
Journal Article

Distinguishing cause from effect using observational data: methods and benchmarks

TL;DR: Empirical results on real-world data indicate that certain methods are indeed able to distinguish cause from effect using only purely observational data, although more benchmark data would be needed to obtain statistically significant conclusions.
Journal ArticleDOI

Causal discovery with continuous additive noise models

TL;DR: If the observational distribution follows a structural equation model with an additive noise structure, the directed acyclic graph becomes identifiable from the distribution under mild conditions, which constitutes an interesting alternative to traditional methods that assume faithfulness and identify only the Markov equivalence class of the graph, thus leaving some edges undirected.
Journal ArticleDOI

Causal inference by using invariant prediction: identification and confidence intervals

TL;DR: In this article, the authors exploit the invariance of a prediction under a causal model for causal inference: given different experimental settings (e.g. various interventions) they collect all models that do show invariance in their predictive accuracy across settings and interventions.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

Regression Shrinkage and Selection via the Lasso

TL;DR: A new method for estimation in linear models called the lasso, which minimizes the residual sum of squares subject to the sum of the absolute value of the coefficients being less than a constant, is proposed.
Book

An introduction to the bootstrap

TL;DR: This article presents bootstrap methods for estimation, using simple arguments, with Minitab macros for implementing these methods, as well as some examples of how these methods could be used for estimation purposes.
Book

Structural Equations with Latent Variables

TL;DR: The General Model, Part I: Latent Variable and Measurement Models Combined, Part II: Extensions, Part III: Extensions and Part IV: Confirmatory Factor Analysis as discussed by the authors.
MonographDOI

Causality: models, reasoning, and inference

TL;DR: The art and science of cause and effect have been studied in the social sciences for a long time as mentioned in this paper, see, e.g., the theory of inferred causation, causal diagrams and the identification of causal effects.
Journal ArticleDOI

Independent component analysis, a new concept?

Pierre Comon
- 01 Apr 1994 - 
TL;DR: An efficient algorithm is proposed, which allows the computation of the ICA of a data matrix within a polynomial time and may actually be seen as an extension of the principal component analysis (PCA).