• Korean Journal of Logic
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.21-67
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• 2017

In this paper, I critically examine Sartorio's (2006) argument for disjunctive cause, and put forth disjunctive causal structure in a different way. I show that the disjunctive causal structure meets not just what Sartorio means to claim but also our understanding of causal responsibility. First, I introduce Sartorio's argument for disjunctive cause. Second, I critically discuss Sartorio's responses to the criticisms of her arguments for disjunctive cause, and propose another problem with her arguments. Finally, I explicate in a different way Sartorio's disjunctive cause in terms of disjunctive causal structure founded on moderate variables, causal interaction, and probability trajectory. I notice, regarding the disjunctive causal structure, the role of causal interaction of cause events with moderate variables. I reveal, regarding the disjunctive causal structure, the significance of indetermination of cause events and effect events for our understanding of causal responsibility. I show that the disjunctive causal structure guides us more convincingly to assign causal responsibility to an agent. I come to three conclusions. First, there is no disjunctive cause event Sartorio argues for. Second, propensities of events to be causally connected to an effect event constitute disjunctive relation. Third, we should notice indetermination of cause events and effect events while assigning causal responsibility to an agent.

• Communications for Statistical Applications and Methods
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.155-178
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• 2024

Regression discontinuity (RD) design is one of the most widely used methods in causal inference for estimation of treatment effect when the treatment is created by a cutpoint from the covariate of interest. There has been little attention to RD design, although it provides a very useful tool for analysis of treatment effect for censored data. In this paper, we define the causal effect for survival function in RD design when the treatment is assigned deterministically by the covariate of interest. We propose estimators of this causal effect for survival data by using transformation, which leads unbiased estimator of the survival function with local linear regression. Simulation studies show the validity of our approach. We also illustrate our proposed method using the prostate, lung, colorectal and ovarian (PLCO) dataset.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.277-292
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• 2023

Much of our experiments are designed to uncover the cause(s) and effect(s) behind a phenomenon (i.e., data generating mechanism) we happen to be interested in. Uncovering such relationships allows us to identify the true workings of a phenomenon and, most importantly, to realize and articulate a model to explore the phenomenon on hand and/or allow us to predict it accurately. Fundamentally, such models are likely to be derived via a causal approach (as opposed to an observational or empirical mean). In this approach, causal discovery is required to create a causal model, which can then be applied to infer the influence of interventions, and answer any hypothetical questions (i.e., in the form of What ifs? Etc.) that commonly used prediction- and statistical-based models may not be able to address. From this lens, this paper builds a case for causal discovery and causal inference and contrasts that against common machine learning approaches - all from a civil and structural engineering perspective. More specifically, this paper outlines the key principles of causality and the most commonly used algorithms and packages for causal discovery and causal inference. Finally, this paper also presents a series of examples and case studies of how causal concepts can be adopted for our domain.

• Korean System Dynamics Review
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.33-55
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• 2012

The research is to identify important diffusion factors and their effects on green car diffusion process using system dynamics perspectives and a causal-loop analysis. Through a deep review on previous research, we have found the important factors of green car diffusion process. Price, driving range, network effect, recharge system, fuel cost had important facilitation on consumer attraction and green car diffusion. Based on the review, we have constructed a causal loop diagram explaining hybrid car diffusion process. We have found 3 important reinforcing loops in the causal loop diagram. Loop for learning & economies of scale(supply side), loop for network effect(consumer side), and loop for battery development(technology side) had most significant roles in the whole diffusion process. Through a deliberate analysis on the 3 causal loops, we have found meaningful results. First, there seems to exist a critical mass in the diffusion. Second, of the 3 loops, the battery technology had most significant role. Third, not consumer installed base but sales must be a standard to decide whether the critical mass is achieved or not. Based on these findings, several meaningful implications are suggested for the government and corporations related to the green car industries.

• Korean Journal of Logic
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.83-133
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• 2015

In this paper, I pose a problem for Hitchcock's arguments for two concepts of effects that are intended to explicate double causal effects, and put forth a theory that is intended not just to meet the problem but also to accommodate Hitchcock's theory and Eells' theory both. First, I introduce an example of dual causal effects, and examine the accounts of Otte(1985) and Eells(1987) on how to explicate the dual effects. I show that their accounts of the dual effects help us understand the problem of dual effects and see how different it is for Cartwright(1979, 1989, 1995), Eells(1991, 1995), and Hitchcock(2001a) to meet the problem. Second, I introduce two concepts of effects on Hitchcock(2001a), that is, net effect and component effect that are allegedly analogous to two effects of structural equation model. Third, I reveal the significance of homogeneous subpopulation and causal interaction regarding the problem of dual effects while examining Cartwright's theory and Elles' theory. Fourth, I critically examine the two concepts of effects on Hitchcock and argue against Hitchcock's criticism of Eells' theory. Fifth, I take a moderator variable of structural equation model and a moderator effect into the probabilistic theory of causality, and formally generalize causal interaction due to the dual effects in terms of disjunctive relation and counterfactual conditionals. I expect my account of disjunctive relation and counterfactual conditionals to contribute not just to several problems the received theories of causal modelling confront but also to the structural equation models many people exploit as a promising statistical methodology.

• Communications for Statistical Applications and Methods
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 2016

Causal inference methodologies have been developed for the past decade to estimate the unconfounded effect of an exposure under several key assumptions. These assumptions include, but are not limited to, the stable unit treatment value assumption, the strong ignorability of treatment assignment assumption, and the assumption that propensity scores be bounded away from zero and one (the positivity assumption). Of these assumptions, the first two have received much attention in the literature. Yet the positivity assumption has been recently discussed in only a few papers. Propensity scores of zero or one are indicative of deterministic exposure so that causal effects cannot be defined for these subjects. Therefore, these subjects need to be removed because no comparable comparison groups can be found for such subjects. In this paper, using currently available causal inference methods, we evaluate the effect of arbitrary cutoffs in the distribution of propensity scores and the impact of those decisions on bias and efficiency. We propose a tree-based method that performs well in terms of bias reduction when the definition of positivity is based on a single confounder. This tree-based method can be easily implemented using the statistical software program, R. R code for the studies is available online.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.116-124
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• 2022

Epidemiological studies typically examine the causal effect of exposure on a health outcome. Standardization is one of the most straightforward methods for estimating causal estimands. However, compared to inverse probability weighting, there is a lack of user-centric explanations for implementing standardization to estimate causal estimands. This paper explains the standardization method using basic R functions only and how it is linked to the R package stdReg, which can be used to implement the same procedure. We provide a step-by-step tutorial for estimating causal risk differences, causal risk ratios, and causal odds ratios based on standardization. We also discuss how to carry out subgroup analysis in detail.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.943-955
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• 2017

We investigate and estimate the causal effect of the survey methods in telephone surveys for the 19th presidential election. For this causal study, we draw a causal graph that represents the causal relationship between variables. Then we decide which variables should be included in the model and which variables should not be. We explain why the research agency is a should-be variable and the response rate is a shouldnot-be variable. The effect of ARS can not be estimated due to data limitations. We have found that there is no significant difference in the effect of the proportion of cell phone survey if it is less than about 90 percent. But the support rate for Moon Jae-in gets higher if the survey is performed only by cell phones.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.615-632
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• 2017

Unlike randomized trial, statistical strategies for inferring the unbiased causal relationship are required in the observational studies. The matching with the propensity score is one of the most popular methods to control the confounders in order to evaluate the effect of the treatment on the outcome variable. Recently, new methods for the causal inference in latent class analysis (LCA) have been proposed to estimate the average causal effect (ACE) of the treatment on the latent discrete variable. They have focused on the application study for the real dataset to estimate the ACE in LCA. In practice, however, the true values of the ACE are not known, and it is difficult to evaluate the performance of the estimated the ACE. In this study, we propose a method to generate a synthetic data using the propensity score in the framework of LCA, where treatment and outcome variables are latent. We then propose a new method for estimating the ACE in LCA and evaluate its performance via simulation studies. Furthermore we present an empirical analysis based on data form the 'National Longitudinal Study of Adolescents Health,' where puberty as a latent treatment and substance use as a latent outcome variable.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.570-582
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to analyze the causal relationship among students' science-related career choice and its factors. The causal relationship was analyzed using structural equation modeling. According to the most fitting model, science career aspiration had a direct and total effect of 0.95 (standardized coefficient) on the science career choice, and personal factor had an indirect and total effect of 0.75 on the science career choice, educational factor, 0.46, and social factor, 0.11. Personal factor had a direct and total effect of 0.79 on the science career aspiration, educational factor with total effect of 0.48 (direct effect -0.21, indirect effect 0.69), and social factor with direct and total effect of 0.12. On the other hand, educational factor had a direct and total effect of 0.72 on the social factor, and a direct and total effect of 0.77 on the personal factor. The difference in the causal effect among grades and between gender was analyzed. The difference was only in the magnitude of influence among grades, showing the same tendency with the total number of students, but the difference between gender was contrastive. For the boys, social factor had the biggest effect on the science career choice, next was personal factor, and the educational factor had the smallest effect. The girls' science career choice influenced mostly from personal factor, and the other two factors' effects were not high. The social effect was negative for the girls' science career choice. The implications of proper science career education were discussed from these results, considering the causal relationship among factors of science career choice and its factors.