OPINION
A lot of latest knowledge science solutions the query “What’s happening?” At my agency, for instance, we frequently attempt to spot how properly an organization is performing, and the way one efficiency indicator is tied to a different via correlations.
A extra highly effective query price answering can be “Why is that this taking place?” For instance, if we detect a major correlation between the presence of ladies in administration and an organization’s revenues, what’s trigger and what’s impact right here? Or, if individuals bear a coaching program, will this trigger their efficiency to enhance? Or would better-performing individuals need to bear a coaching program, and therefore we solely see an impact resulting from choice bias?
Several approaches exist to pinpoint causal relationships in knowledge science. Propensity-Rating Matching (PSM) is without doubt one of the older ones, having emerged around 40 years ago. Different strategies like Structural Equation Modeling arose on the identical time. Approaches like Instrumental Variables arose a number of many years earlier than. Causal statistics remains to be a really lively discipline, with many new strategies being developed.
A key benefit of PSM is that it permits researchers to work with real-world knowledge. Specifically, it…