The Assumptions on Which Causal Inferences Rest
因果推断所依赖的假设
SUMMARY Statisticians commonly make causal inferences from the results of randomized experiments, but usually question causal inferences from observational studies on the grounds that untestable assumptions are required. This paper explains the basis for this situation and examines, within quite a general framework, various assumptions that appear in the literature. It is demonstrated how the role of each assumption is intimately related to the sort of causal inference being…