Book Image

Causal Inference and Discovery in Python

By : Aleksander Molak
4.7 (9)
Book Image

Causal Inference and Discovery in Python

4.7 (9)
By: Aleksander Molak

Overview of this book

Causal methods present unique challenges compared to traditional machine learning and statistics. Learning causality can be challenging, but it offers distinct advantages that elude a purely statistical mindset. Causal Inference and Discovery in Python helps you unlock the potential of causality. You’ll start with basic motivations behind causal thinking and a comprehensive introduction to Pearlian causal concepts, such as structural causal models, interventions, counterfactuals, and more. Each concept is accompanied by a theoretical explanation and a set of practical exercises with Python code. Next, you’ll dive into the world of causal effect estimation, consistently progressing towards modern machine learning methods. Step-by-step, you’ll discover Python causal ecosystem and harness the power of cutting-edge algorithms. You’ll further explore the mechanics of how “causes leave traces” and compare the main families of causal discovery algorithms. The final chapter gives you a broad outlook into the future of causal AI where we examine challenges and opportunities and provide you with a comprehensive list of resources to learn more. By the end of this book, you will be able to build your own models for causal inference and discovery using statistical and machine learning techniques as well as perform basic project assessment.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
1
Part 1: Causality – an Introduction
7
Part 2: Causal Inference
14
Part 3: Causal Discovery

DAG your pardon? Directed acyclic graphs in the causal wonderland

We’ll start this section by reviewing definitions of causality. Then, we’ll discuss the motivations behind DAGs and their limitations. Finally, we’ll formalize the concept of a DAG.

Definitions of causality

In the first chapter, we discussed a couple of historical definitions of causality. We started with Aristotle, then we briefly covered the ideas proposed by David Hume. We’ve seen that Hume’s definition (as we presented it) was focused on associations. This led us to look into how babies learn about the world using experimentation. We‘ve seen how experimentation allows us to go beyond the realm of observations by interacting with the environment. The possibility of interacting with the environment is at the heart of another definition of causality that comes from Judea Pearl.

Pearl proposed something very simple yet powerful. His definition is short, ignores ontological...