Skip to main content
eScholarship
Open Access Publications from the University of California

A Characterization of Interventional Distributions in Semi-Markovian Causal Models

Abstract

We offer a complete characterization of the set of distributions that could be induced by local interventions on variables governed by a causal Bayesian network of unknown structure, in which some of the variables remain unmeasured. We show that such distributions are constrained by a simply formulated set of inequalities, from which bounds can be derived on causal effects that are not directly measured in randomized experiments.