Porthole
The Evolving Role of Causal Inference Methods for Informing Air Quality Policy (306618)
*Corwin M Zigler, University of Texas at AustinKeywords: causal inference, air pollution, environmental policy, observational studies
An evolving political environment is placing new demands on the scientific evidence used to support air pollution policy decisions. In fact, causal inference methods have emerged at the center of debates about the health effects of elevated exposure to ambient air pollution. This talk will outline how causal inference is being used in this domain and offer a statistical perspective on the continued evolution of methods for evaluating air pollution regulatory policies. In particular, there is a renewed demand for advances from the statistical community to contribute to ongoing research in epidemiology, economics, and environmental science towards the goal of evaluating and supporting air pollution policy. An outline of current statistical research challenges inviting new methodological development will include methods for strong confounding and limited propensity score “overlap,” spatial confounding adjustment, and causal inference with interference.