Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Psychol Methods. 2010 Mar;15(1):38-46. doi: 10.1037/a0018537.
This article offers reflections on the development of the Rubin causal model (RCM), which were stimulated by the impressive discussions of the RCM and Campbell's superb contributions to the practical problems of drawing causal inferences written by Will Shadish (2010) and Steve West and Felix Thoemmes (2010). It is not a rejoinder in any real sense but more of a sequence of clarifications of parts of the RCM combined with some possibly interesting personal historical comments, which I do not think can be found elsewhere. Of particular interest in the technical content, I think, are the extended discussions of the stable unit treatment value assumption, the explication of the variety of definitions of causal estimands, and the discussion of the assignment mechanism.
这篇文章对鲁宾因果模型(RCM)的发展进行了反思,这些反思受到了以下内容的启发:威拉德·沙什(Will Shadish)(2010)和史蒂夫·韦斯特(Steve West)与费利克斯·托梅斯(Felix Thoemmes)(2010)对 RCM 的精彩讨论,以及坎贝尔(Campbell)对因果推断实际问题的卓越贡献。这篇文章与其说是真正意义上的回应,不如说是对 RCM 的部分内容的一系列澄清,以及一些可能有趣的个人历史评论,我认为这些内容在其他地方是找不到的。我认为,在技术内容方面,特别值得关注的是对稳定单位处理值假设的扩展讨论、因果估计量各种定义的说明,以及对分配机制的讨论。