IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cdl/ucsbec/qt12q3t2vd.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Reconsidering Causation

Author

Listed:
  • LeRoy, Stephen F

Abstract

Recent applied work in economics has displayed renewed interest in the problem of characterizing the causal relations that link economic variables. However, many discussions avoid explicit specification ofwhat has to be true about a formal model to justify an assertion that one variable in it causes another. Such specification is supplied here. Related topics, such as determining whether correlation implies causation, or vice-versa, and when causal coefficients can be estimated using ordinary least squares or instrumental variables regressions, are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • LeRoy, Stephen F, 2024. "Reconsidering Causation," University of California at Santa Barbara, Economics Working Paper Series qt12q3t2vd, Department of Economics, UC Santa Barbara.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdl:ucsbec:qt12q3t2vd
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/12q3t2vd.pdf;origin=repeccitec
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cartwright,Nancy, 2007. "Hunting Causes and Using Them," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521860819, November.
    2. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2017. "Undergraduate Econometrics Instruction: Through Our Classes, Darkly," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(2), pages 125-144, Spring.
    3. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2015. "The path from cause to effect: mastering 'metrics," CentrePiece - The magazine for economic performance 442, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. Susan Athey & Guido W. Imbens, 2017. "The State of Applied Econometrics: Causality and Policy Evaluation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(2), pages 3-32, Spring.
    5. Cartwright,Nancy, 2007. "Hunting Causes and Using Them," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521677981, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrew Gelman & Guido Imbens, 2013. "Why ask Why? Forward Causal Inference and Reverse Causal Questions," NBER Working Papers 19614, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Courgeau, Daniel, 2012. "Probability and social science : methodologial relationships between the two approaches ?," MPRA Paper 43102, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Adrian Pabst & Roberto Scazzieri, 2012. "The political economy of civil society," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 337-356, December.
    4. Michael Margolis, 2017. "Graphs as a Tool for the Close Reading of Econometrics (Settler Mortality is not a Valid Instrument for Institutions)," Economic Thought, World Economics Association, vol. 6(1), pages 56-82, March.
    5. Mouchart, Michel & Russo, Federica & Wunsch, Guillaume, 2011. "Inferring causal relations by modelling structures : Article de recherche," LIDAM Discussion Papers ISBA 2011007, Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences (ISBA).
    6. Galbács Peter, 2021. "What did it take for Lucas to set up ‘useful’ analogue systems in monetary business cycle theory?," Economics and Business Review, Sciendo, vol. 7(3), pages 61-82, September.
    7. Spermann, Alexander, 2022. "Aktuelle Mikrosimulationsstudien zur Einführung eines partiellen bedingungslosen Grundeinkommens in Deutschland: Eine kritische Analyse," FRIBIS Discussion Paper Series 01-2022, University of Freiburg, Freiburg Institute for Basic Income Studies (FRIBIS).
    8. Emily Chamlee-Wright, 2010. "Qualitative methods and the pursuit of economic understanding," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 23(4), pages 321-331, December.
    9. Pearl Judea, 2018. "Does Obesity Shorten Life? Or is it the Soda? On Non-manipulable Causes," Journal of Causal Inference, De Gruyter, vol. 6(2), pages 1-7, September.
    10. Giuseppe De Luca & Jan R. Magnus & Franco Peracchi, 2018. "Balanced Variable Addition In Linear Models," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(4), pages 1183-1200, September.
    11. Edoardo Masset, 2022. "Conflict and Child Mortality in Mali: A Synthetic Control Analysis," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 48(4), pages 1097-1123, December.
    12. Padró, R. & Marco, I. & Font, C. & Tello, E., 2019. "Beyond Chayanov: A sustainable agroecological farm reproductive analysis of peasant domestic units and rural communities (Sentmenat; Catalonia, 1860)," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 227-239.
    13. Priscilla Álamos-Concha & Valérie Pattyn & Benoît Rihoux & Benjamin Schalembier & Derek Beach & Bart Cambré, 2022. "Conservative solutions for progress: on solution types when combining QCA with in-depth Process-Tracing," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 1965-1997, August.
    14. Paul Shaffer, 2018. "Causal pluralism and mixed methods in the analysis of poverty dynamics," WIDER Working Paper Series 115, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    15. John Kay, 2014. "El mapa no es el territorio: un ensayo sobre el estado de la economía," Revista de Economía Institucional, Universidad Externado de Colombia - Facultad de Economía, vol. 16(30), pages 13-24, January-J.
    16. Deirdre Nansen McCloskey, 2013. "Why Economics cannot Explain the Modern World," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 89, pages 8-22, June.
    17. Hünermund Paul & Louw Beyers & Caspi Itamar, 2023. "Double machine learning and automated confounder selection: A cautionary tale," Journal of Causal Inference, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, January.
    18. Magdalena Małecka, 2017. "Posner versus Kelsen: the challenges for scientific analysis of law," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 495-516, June.
    19. Magdalena Osinska, 2011. "On the Interpretation of Causality in Granger’s Sense," Dynamic Econometric Models, Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika, vol. 11, pages 129-140.
    20. Kieran P. Donaghy, 2022. "A Circular Economy Model of Economic Growth with Circular and Cumulative Causation and Trade," Networks and Spatial Economics, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 461-488, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social and Behavioral Sciences;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:cdl:ucsbec:qt12q3t2vd. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Lisa Schiff (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/educsus.html .

    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.