Unit Selection with Causal Diagram
This work addresses selection optimization in causal inference, offering incremental improvements to existing methods.
The paper tackles the unit selection problem by narrowing bounds on the benefit function using structural causal models, showing that this can significantly change decisions.
The unit selection problem aims to identify a set of individuals who are most likely to exhibit a desired mode of behavior, for example, selecting individuals who would respond one way if encouraged and a different way if not encouraged. Using a combination of experimental and observational data, Li and Pearl derived tight bounds on the "benefit function" - the payoff/cost associated with selecting an individual with given characteristics. This paper shows that these bounds can be narrowed significantly (enough to change decisions) when structural information is available in the form of a causal model. We address the problem of estimating the benefit function using observational and experimental data when specific graphical criteria are assumed to hold.