DeCaFlow: A Deconfounding Causal Generative Model

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2503.15114v1
• Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2025 11:14:16 GMT
• Title: DeCaFlow: A Deconfounding Causal Generative Model
• Authors: Alejandro Almodóvar, Adrián Javaloy, Juan Parras, Santiago Zazo, Isabel Valera,
• Abstract summary: Causal generative models (CGMs) have recently emerged as capable approaches to simulate the causal mechanisms generating our observations.<n>We introduce DeCaFlow, a CGM that accounts for hidden confounders in a single amortized training process using only observational data and the causal graph.<n>For the first time to our knowledge, we show that a confounded counterfactual query is identifiable, and thus solvable by DeCaFlow.
• Score: 58.411886466157185
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Abstract: Causal generative models (CGMs) have recently emerged as capable approaches to simulate the causal mechanisms generating our observations, enabling causal inference. Unfortunately, existing approaches either are overly restrictive, assuming the absence of hidden confounders, or lack generality, being tailored to a particular query and graph. In this work, we introduce DeCaFlow, a CGM that accounts for hidden confounders in a single amortized training process using only observational data and the causal graph. Importantly, DeCaFlow can provably identify all causal queries with a valid adjustment set or sufficiently informative proxy variables. Remarkably, for the first time to our knowledge, we show that a confounded counterfactual query is identifiable, and thus solvable by DeCaFlow, as long as its interventional counterpart is as well. Our empirical results on diverse settings (including the Ecoli70 dataset, with 3 independent hidden confounders, tens of observed variables and hundreds of causal queries) show that DeCaFlow outperforms existing approaches, while demonstrating its out-of-the-box flexibility.

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