Abstract Generalizing empirical findings to new environments, settings, or populations is essential in most scientific explorations. This article treats a particular problem of generalizability, called “transportability”, defined as a license to transfer information learned in experimental...

Abstract The paper provides a simple test for deciding, from a given causal diagram, whether two sets of variables have the same bias-reducing potential under adjustment. The test requires that one of the following two conditions holds: either (1) both sets are admissible (i.e. satisfy the...

Abstract The paradox described below aims to clarify the principles by which empirical data are harnessed to guide decision making. It is motivated by the practical question of whether empirical assessments of the effect of treatment on the treated (ETT) can be useful for either policy...

Abstract This paper reviews concepts, principles, and tools that have led to a coherent mathematical theory that unifies the graphical, structural, and potential outcome approaches to causal inference. The theory provides solutions to a number of pending problems in causal analysis, including...

Abstract Conventional wisdom dictates that the more we know about a problem domain the easier it is to predict the effects of policies in that domain. Strangely, this wisdom is not sanctioned by formal analysis, when the notions of “knowledge” and “policy” are given concrete definitions...

Abstract Augmenting the graphoid axioms with three additional rules enables us to handle independencies among observed as well as counterfactual variables. The augmented set of axioms facilitates the derivation of testable implications and ignorability conditions whenever modeling assumptions...

Abstract In this issue of the Causal, Casual, and Curious column, I compare several ways of extracting information from post-treatment variables and call attention to some peculiar relationships among them. In particular, I contrast do -calculus conditioning with counterfactual conditioning and...