arXiv Machine Learning

Spatiotemporal Proximal Causal Inference under Hidden Confounding and Interference

arXiv:2608. 01352v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Estimating causal effects from real-world spatiotemporal data is challenging due to hidden confounders and interference.

arXiv Machine Learning
Jun 30

Spatial Deconfounder: Interference-Aware Deconfounding for Spatial Causal Inference

arXiv:2510. 08762v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Causal inference in spatial domains faces two intertwined challenges: (1) unmeasured spatial factors, such as weather, air pollution, or mobility, that confound treatment and outcome, and (2) interference from nearby treatments that violate standard no-interference assumptions.

By Ayush Khot, Miruna Oprescu, Maresa Schr\"oder, Ai Kagawa, Xihaier Luo
arXiv Machine Learning
5d ago

I Act Therefore I Am: When Is JEPA's Action-Conditioning Enough to Learn Causal Mechanisms?

The paper studies when joint-embedding predictive architectures (JEPAs) can recover underlying causal states from high‑dimensional observations. It introduces a latent variable model where observations arise from causal states with action‑conditioned dynamics, and proposes an information‑theoretic objective that maximizes conditional likelihood while preserving state entropy. The authors prove identifiability conditions—particularly sufficient action‑induced variation—and instantiate the objective as an action‑modulated Gaussian additive‑noise model (A‑JEPA), demonstrating theoretical and empirical success in synthetic and visual benchmarks.

By Yuhang Liu, Zhuo Huang, Javen Qinfeng Shi
arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 27

Controlling for Omitted Variable Bias in Deep Neural Networks

The paper introduces a control‑variable framework for deep neural networks to mitigate omitted variable bias, particularly shortcut learning where covariates like demographics influence predictions. It refits the final layer of a pre‑trained network using cross‑fitting with ridge penalisation, orthogonalises covariate effects, and marginalises predictions over covariate distributions to achieve unbiased, interpretable results. Experiments on simulated images and neuroimaging data show consistent estimation of true effects and performance close to models trained on unconfounded data.

By Manuel Pfeuffer, Roshan Prakash Rane, Kerstin Ritter, Sonja Greven
arXiv Statistics ML
6d ago

Identifying Causal Effects Using a Single Proxy Variable

The paper tackles the problem of estimating causal effects when an unobserved confounder is present. It assumes a single, possibly multi‑dimensional proxy variable for the confounder and knowledge of the mechanism that generates this proxy. Under the Single Proxy Identifiability of Causal Effects (SPICE) assumption, the authors prove that the error mechanism is complete and causal effects are identifiable, extending prior proxy‑based results to continuous, multi‑dimensional settings and more flexible functional forms. They also introduce SPICE‑Net, a neural‑network‑based framework for estimating causal effects applicable to both discrete and continuous treatments.

By Silvan Vollmer, Niklas Pfister, Sebastian Weichwald