Distributional equivalence and structure learning for bow-free acyclic path diagrams

DOI10.1214/17-EJS1372zbMATH Open1384.62209arXiv1508.01717OpenAlexW2964161256MaRDI QIDQ1689000FDOQ1689000

Authors: Peng Zhang 

Publication date: 12 January 2018

Published in: Electronic Journal of Statistics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We consider the problem of structure learning for bow-free acyclic path diagrams (BAPs). BAPs can be viewed as a generalization of linear Gaussian DAG models that allow for certain hidden variables. We present a first method for this problem using a greedy score-based search algorithm. We also prove some necessary and some sufficient conditions for distributional equivalence of BAPs which are used in an algorithmic ap- proach to compute (nearly) equivalent model structures. This allows us to infer lower bounds of causal effects. We also present applications to real and simulated datasets using our publicly available R-package.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1508.01717

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zbMATH Keywords

causal inferencelatent variablesstructure learningstructural equation modelshidden variablesgreedy searchdistributional equivalencepath diagrams

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Multivariate analysis (62H99) Estimation in multivariate analysis (62H12)

Cited In (4)

• Logic of causal inference from data under presence of latent confounders
• Computation of maximum likelihood estimates in cyclic structural equation models
• greedyBAPs
• Learning instrumental variables with structural and non-Gaussianity assumptions

Uses Software

• R
• mvtnorm
• ggm
• TETRAD

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