Statistical Models and Causal Inference
Statistical Models and Causal Inference is a book that offers an integration of author David A. Freedman’s views on his approach to causal inference in the social sciences. With a definitive synthesis, the book explores the foundations and limitations of statistical modelling, illustrating basic arguments with examples from political science, public policy, law, and epidemiology. The author incorporates his “shoe leather” methodology, which exploits natural variation to mitigate confounding and relies on intimate knowledge of the subject matter, to further develop research designs and eliminate rival explanations.
Statistical Models and Causal Inference Table of Contents
Part I - Statistical Modeling: Foundations and Limitations
1. Issues in the Foundations of Statistics: Probability and Statistical Models
2. Statistical Assumptions as Empirical Commitments
3. Statistical Models and Shoe Leather
Part II - Studies in Political Science, Public Policy, and Epidemiology
4. Methods for Census 2000 and Statistical Adjustments
5. On "Solutions" to the Ecological Inference Problem
6. Rejoinder to King
7. Black Ravens, White Shoes, and Case Selection: Inference with Categorical Variables
8. What is the Chance of an Earthquake
9. Salt and Blood Pressure: Conventional Wisdom Reconsidered
10. The Swine Flu Vaccine and Guillain-Barre Syndrome: A Case Study in Relative Risk and Specific Causation
11. Survival Analysis: An Epidemiological Hazard?
Part III - New Developments: Progress or Regress?
12. On Regression Adjustments in Experiments with Several Treatments
13. Randomization Does Not Justify Logistic Regression
14. The Grand Leap
15. On Specifying Graphical Models for Causation, and the Identification Problem
16. Weighting Regressions by Propensity Scores
17. On the So-Called “Huber Sandwich Estimator” and “Robust Standard Errors”
18. Endogeneity in Probit Response Models
19. Diagnostics Cannot Have Much Power Against General Alternatives
Part IV - Shoe Leather Revisited
20. On Types of Scientific Inquiry: The Role of Qualitative Reasoning