DAG-aware Transformer for Causal Effect Estimation

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Liu, Manqing, Bellamy, David R., Beam, Andrew L.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Liu, Manqing
Bellamy, David R.
Beam, Andrew L.
author_facet Liu, Manqing
Bellamy, David R.
Beam, Andrew L.
contents Causal inference is a critical task across fields such as healthcare, economics, and the social sciences. While recent advances in machine learning, especially those based on the deep-learning architectures, have shown potential in estimating causal effects, existing approaches often fall short in handling complex causal structures and lack adaptability across various causal scenarios. In this paper, we present a novel transformer-based method for causal inference that overcomes these challenges. The core innovation of our model lies in its integration of causal Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs) directly into the attention mechanism, enabling it to accurately model the underlying causal structure. This allows for flexible estimation of both average treatment effects (ATE) and conditional average treatment effects (CATE). Extensive experiments on both synthetic and real-world datasets demonstrate that our approach surpasses existing methods in estimating causal effects across a wide range of scenarios. The flexibility and robustness of our model make it a valuable tool for researchers and practitioners tackling complex causal inference problems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_10044
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle DAG-aware Transformer for Causal Effect Estimation
Liu, Manqing
Bellamy, David R.
Beam, Andrew L.
Machine Learning
Causal inference is a critical task across fields such as healthcare, economics, and the social sciences. While recent advances in machine learning, especially those based on the deep-learning architectures, have shown potential in estimating causal effects, existing approaches often fall short in handling complex causal structures and lack adaptability across various causal scenarios. In this paper, we present a novel transformer-based method for causal inference that overcomes these challenges. The core innovation of our model lies in its integration of causal Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs) directly into the attention mechanism, enabling it to accurately model the underlying causal structure. This allows for flexible estimation of both average treatment effects (ATE) and conditional average treatment effects (CATE). Extensive experiments on both synthetic and real-world datasets demonstrate that our approach surpasses existing methods in estimating causal effects across a wide range of scenarios. The flexibility and robustness of our model make it a valuable tool for researchers and practitioners tackling complex causal inference problems.
title DAG-aware Transformer for Causal Effect Estimation
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.10044