eff2 - Efficient Least Squares for Total Causal Effects
Estimate a total causal effect from observational data
under linearity and causal sufficiency. The observational data
is supposed to be generated from a linear structural equation
model (SEM) with independent and additive noise. The underlying
causal DAG associated the SEM is required to be known up to a
maximally oriented partially directed graph (MPDAG), which is a
general class of graphs consisting of both directed and
undirected edges, including CPDAGs (i.e., essential graphs) and
DAGs. Such graphs are usually obtained with structure learning
algorithms with added background knowledge. The program is able
to estimate every identified effect, including single and
multiple treatment variables. Moreover, the resulting estimate
has the minimal asymptotic covariance (and hence shortest
confidence intervals) among all estimators that are based on
the sample covariance.