Probabilistic models are typically trained using task-agnostic objectives like log-loss, which can lead to significant errors in downstream estimation. This disconnect is especially critical in Inverse Probability Weighting (IPW) for causal inference, where propensity score errors near $0$ and $1$ often lead to high bias and variance.
Causal Foundation Models (CFMs) are pretrained neural networks designed to estimate causal quantities—such as the average treatment effect—across new datasets using in‑context learning, eliminating the need for bespoke pipelines or model updates. The paper introduces CFMs, reviews foundational concepts in causal inference and machine learning, and provides practical code examples and Jupyter notebooks to illustrate their application.
By Christopher Stith, Hossein Rahmani, Jesse C. Cresswell
arXiv:2605. 15133v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Causal inference, estimating causal effects from observational data, is a fundamental tool in many disciplines.
By Christopher Stith, Medha Barath, Vahid Balazadeh, Jesse C. Cresswell, Rahul G. Krishnan
CausalProfiler is a synthetic benchmark generator designed to evaluate causal machine learning (Causal ML) methods more rigorously and transparently. It randomly samples causal models, data, queries, and ground truths based on explicit design choices across observation, intervention, and counterfactual reasoning levels, providing coverage guarantees and transparent assumptions. The authors demonstrate its utility by testing several state‑of‑the‑art methods under diverse conditions, both within and outside the identification regime, highlighting the insights CausalProfiler can reveal.
By Panayiotis Panayiotou, Audrey Poinsot, Alessandro Leite, Nicolas Chesneau, Marc Schoenauer, \"Ozg\"ur \c{S}im\c{s}ek
arXiv:2606. 27114v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Uplift modeling, crucial for estimating individual treatment effects (ITE), faces dual challenges: flexibly leveraging inter-group similarity to enhance discriminative power and debiasing under unobserved confounding scenarios.
By Haoran Zhang, Chuanpu Li, Yuxin Fu, Bin Tong, Guan Wang, Bo Zheng, Feng Zhou
The paper introduces a new framework for identifying average dose-response functions in the presence of unmeasured confounding by using instrumental variables. It defines a uniform regular weighting function and partitions the treatment space into open sets where local identification is possible. For estimation, the authors propose an augmented inverse probability weighted score within a debiased machine learning setting, along with practical guidance for constructing weighting functions, falsification tests for the additive IV condition, and asymptotic theory for kernel regression or empirical risk minimization estimators.
By Shuyuan Chen, Peng Zhang, Yifan Cui
Uplift modeling, crucial for estimating individual treatment effects (ITE), faces dual challenges: flexibly leveraging inter-group similarity to enhance discriminative power and debiasing under unobserved confounding scenarios. In this paper, we propose the Cross-Head Attention Uplift Network (CHAUN) and Robust Adversarial Inverse Propensity Score (RA-IPS) method to address these limitations.
arXiv:2606. 07399v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Generative models for counterfactual outcomes have great potential to support decision-making under complex interventions, but existing approaches are limited by unstable estimation, poor generalization across environments, and bias from nuisance model misspecification.
By Raphael C Kim, Jingsen Zhu, Ramin Zabih, Michele Santacatterina
arXiv:2607. 21806v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Predictive machine learning (ML) models are increasingly used to aid human decision-makers across various high-risk domains such as healthcare and criminal justice.
By Jonathan Zhang, Erik Skalnes, Jacob Chen, Michael Oberst
arXiv:2607. 13428v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Positive-Unlabeled (PU) learning aims to achieve high-accuracy binary classification with limited labeled positive examples and numerous unlabeled ones.
By Xutao Wang, Hanting Chen, Tianyu Guo, Yunhe Wang
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
arXiv:2609.40051v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Estimating causal effects from observational data is central to science and policy, but the effects are not identified when confounders are unmeasured....
By Yonghan Jung