When the causal relationship between X and Y is specified by a structural equation, the causal effect of X on Y is the expected rate of change of Y with respect to changes in X, when all other variables are kept fixed. This causal effect is not identifiable from the distribution of (X,Y). We give conditions under which this causal effect is identified as the solution of an integral equation based on the distributions of (X,Z) and (Y,Z), where Z is an instrumental variable.
翻译:当X和Y之间的因果关系由结构方程式指定时,X对Y的因果影响是相对于X的变动预期Y的变动率,而所有其他变数都是固定的。这种因果影响无法从(X,Y)的分布中识别出来。我们给出了条件,在这种条件下,根据(X,Z)和(Y,Z)的分布确定这种因果影响是整体等式的解决方案,而Z是一个工具变量。