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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Larsen, Tobias Ellegaard, Ekstrøm, Claus Thorn, Petersen, Anne Helby
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.06232
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author Larsen, Tobias Ellegaard
Ekstrøm, Claus Thorn
Petersen, Anne Helby
author_facet Larsen, Tobias Ellegaard
Ekstrøm, Claus Thorn
Petersen, Anne Helby
contents Temporal background information can improve causal discovery algorithms by orienting edges and identifying relevant adjustment sets. We develop the Temporal Greedy Equivalence Search (TGES) algorithm and terminology essential for score-based causal discovery with tiered background knowledge. TGES learns a restricted Markov equivalence class of directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) using observational data and tiered background knowledge. To construct TGES we formulate a scoring criterion that accounts for tiered background knowledge. We establish theoretical results for TGES, stating that the algorithm always returns a tiered maximally oriented partially directed acyclic graph (tiered MPDAG) and that this tiered MPDAG contains the true DAG in the large sample limit. We present a simulation study indicating a gain from using tiered background knowledge and an improved precision-recall trade-off compared to the temporal PC algorithm. We provide a real-world example on life-course health data.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_06232
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Score-Based Causal Discovery with Temporal Background Information
Larsen, Tobias Ellegaard
Ekstrøm, Claus Thorn
Petersen, Anne Helby
Methodology
Temporal background information can improve causal discovery algorithms by orienting edges and identifying relevant adjustment sets. We develop the Temporal Greedy Equivalence Search (TGES) algorithm and terminology essential for score-based causal discovery with tiered background knowledge. TGES learns a restricted Markov equivalence class of directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) using observational data and tiered background knowledge. To construct TGES we formulate a scoring criterion that accounts for tiered background knowledge. We establish theoretical results for TGES, stating that the algorithm always returns a tiered maximally oriented partially directed acyclic graph (tiered MPDAG) and that this tiered MPDAG contains the true DAG in the large sample limit. We present a simulation study indicating a gain from using tiered background knowledge and an improved precision-recall trade-off compared to the temporal PC algorithm. We provide a real-world example on life-course health data.
title Score-Based Causal Discovery with Temporal Background Information
topic Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.06232