Hierarchical Causal Structure Learning

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hermes, Sjoerd, van Heerwaarden, Joost, van Eeuwijk, Fred, Behrouzi, Pariya
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866914170231848960
author Hermes, Sjoerd
van Heerwaarden, Joost
van Eeuwijk, Fred
Behrouzi, Pariya
author_facet Hermes, Sjoerd
van Heerwaarden, Joost
van Eeuwijk, Fred
Behrouzi, Pariya
contents Traditional statistical approaches primarily aim to model associations between variables, but many scientific and practical questions require causal methods instead. These approaches rely on assumptions about an underlying structure, often represented by a directed acyclic graph (DAG). When all variables are measured at the same level, causal structures can be learned using existing techniques. However, no suitable methods exist when data are organized hierarchically or across multiple levels. This paper addresses such cases, where both unit-level and group-level variables are present. These multi-level structures frequently arise in fields such as agriculture, where plants (units) grow within different environments (groups). Building on nonlinear structural causal models, or additive noise models, we propose a method that accommodates unobserved confounders as well as group-specific causal functions. The approach is implemented in the R package HSCM, available at https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=HSCM.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_20021
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Hierarchical Causal Structure Learning
Hermes, Sjoerd
van Heerwaarden, Joost
van Eeuwijk, Fred
Behrouzi, Pariya
Methodology
Traditional statistical approaches primarily aim to model associations between variables, but many scientific and practical questions require causal methods instead. These approaches rely on assumptions about an underlying structure, often represented by a directed acyclic graph (DAG). When all variables are measured at the same level, causal structures can be learned using existing techniques. However, no suitable methods exist when data are organized hierarchically or across multiple levels. This paper addresses such cases, where both unit-level and group-level variables are present. These multi-level structures frequently arise in fields such as agriculture, where plants (units) grow within different environments (groups). Building on nonlinear structural causal models, or additive noise models, we propose a method that accommodates unobserved confounders as well as group-specific causal functions. The approach is implemented in the R package HSCM, available at https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=HSCM.
title Hierarchical Causal Structure Learning
topic Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.20021