Description
Although most studies in the life and social sciences aim to answer causal questions, their approach is usually focussed on associations.
Typical causal questions are:
- What was the death cause of a given individual, in a specific incident?
- What fraction of crimes could have been avoided by a given policy?
- What is the effect of smoking on mortality in a given population?
The aim of this seminar is to jointly work out some of basic concepts and ideas of causal inference and to understand methods for quantifying causal effects.
Literature
- Hernan & Robins (2020). Causal Inference - What if. CRC Press.
- Peters, Janzing & Schölkopf (2017). Elements of causal inference. The MIT Press.
Requirements
- This seminar is eligible for Master students in Statistics, Data Science and Econometrics.
- Some of the early topics are suitable for interested statistics students in their last Bachelor year.
- A decent understanding of probabilistic and statistical concepts and linear algebra is expected.
Mode
- The seminar will take place over the course of 2-4 block meetings starting around the middle of the semester.
- Grading will be based on a written report (either English or German) and a presentation (English).
Registration
Binding registration is possible via e-mail to sia.statistik@tu-dortmund.de with matriculation number and study program.
