Long-Term Individual Causal Effect Estimation via Identifiable Latent Representation Learning

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Cai, Ruichu, Wan, Junjie, Chen, Weilin, Yang, Zeqin, Li, Zijian, Zhen, Peng, Guo, Jiecheng
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Cai, Ruichu
Wan, Junjie
Chen, Weilin
Yang, Zeqin
Li, Zijian
Zhen, Peng
Guo, Jiecheng
author_facet Cai, Ruichu
Wan, Junjie
Chen, Weilin
Yang, Zeqin
Li, Zijian
Zhen, Peng
Guo, Jiecheng
contents Estimating long-term causal effects by combining long-term observational and short-term experimental data is a crucial but challenging problem in many real-world scenarios. In existing methods, several ideal assumptions, e.g. latent unconfoundedness assumption or additive equi-confounding bias assumption, are proposed to address the latent confounder problem raised by the observational data. However, in real-world applications, these assumptions are typically violated which limits their practical effectiveness. In this paper, we tackle the problem of estimating the long-term individual causal effects without the aforementioned assumptions. Specifically, we propose to utilize the natural heterogeneity of data, such as data from multiple sources, to identify latent confounders, thereby significantly avoiding reliance on idealized assumptions. Practically, we devise a latent representation learning-based estimator of long-term causal effects. Theoretically, we establish the identifiability of latent confounders, with which we further achieve long-term effect identification. Extensive experimental studies, conducted on multiple synthetic and semi-synthetic datasets, demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_05192
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Long-Term Individual Causal Effect Estimation via Identifiable Latent Representation Learning
Cai, Ruichu
Wan, Junjie
Chen, Weilin
Yang, Zeqin
Li, Zijian
Zhen, Peng
Guo, Jiecheng
Machine Learning
Estimating long-term causal effects by combining long-term observational and short-term experimental data is a crucial but challenging problem in many real-world scenarios. In existing methods, several ideal assumptions, e.g. latent unconfoundedness assumption or additive equi-confounding bias assumption, are proposed to address the latent confounder problem raised by the observational data. However, in real-world applications, these assumptions are typically violated which limits their practical effectiveness. In this paper, we tackle the problem of estimating the long-term individual causal effects without the aforementioned assumptions. Specifically, we propose to utilize the natural heterogeneity of data, such as data from multiple sources, to identify latent confounders, thereby significantly avoiding reliance on idealized assumptions. Practically, we devise a latent representation learning-based estimator of long-term causal effects. Theoretically, we establish the identifiability of latent confounders, with which we further achieve long-term effect identification. Extensive experimental studies, conducted on multiple synthetic and semi-synthetic datasets, demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method.
title Long-Term Individual Causal Effect Estimation via Identifiable Latent Representation Learning
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.05192