Abstract

Based on the popularity of causal Bayesian networks and structural causal models, one might expect that these representations are appropriate to describe the causal semantics of any real-world system—-at least in principle. In this talk, I will argue that this is not the case, and motivate the study of more general causal modeling frameworks. In particular, I will discuss bipartite graphical causal models. Real-world complex systems are often modelled by systems of equations with endogenous and independent exogenous random variables. Such models have a long tradition in physics and engineering. The structure of such systems of equations can be encoded by a bipartite graph, with variable and equation nodes that are adjacent if a variable appears in an equation. I will show how one can use Simon’s causal ordering algorithm to derive a Markov property that states the conditional independence for (distributions of) solutions of the equations in terms of the bipartite graph. I will then show how this Markov property gives rise to a do-calculus for bipartite graphical causal models, providing these with a refined causal interpretation.