IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/somere/v53y2024i3p1071-1104.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Crash Course in Good and Bad Controls

Author

Listed:
  • Carlos Cinelli
  • Andrew Forney
  • Judea Pearl

Abstract

Many students of statistics and econometrics express frustration with the way a problem known as “bad control†is treated in the traditional literature. The issue arises when the addition of a variable to a regression equation produces an unintended discrepancy between the regression coefficient and the effect that the coefficient is intended to represent. Avoiding such discrepancies presents a challenge to all analysts in the data intensive sciences. This note describes graphical tools for understanding, visualizing, and resolving the problem through a series of illustrative examples. By making this “crash course†accessible to instructors and practitioners, we hope to avail these tools to a broader community of scientists concerned with the causal interpretation of regression models.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlos Cinelli & Andrew Forney & Judea Pearl, 2024. "A Crash Course in Good and Bad Controls," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 53(3), pages 1071-1104, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:somere:v:53:y:2024:i:3:p:1071-1104
    DOI: 10.1177/00491241221099552
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00491241221099552
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00491241221099552?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:somere:v:53:y:2024:i:3:p:1071-1104. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.