Causal Inference in Environmental Science and Agriculture: Opportunities and Challenges

• Activity Number: 67
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Sunday, August 9, 2015 : 4:00 PM to 5:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics in Epidemiology
• Author(s): Molly Davies*
• Keywords: causal inference ; environmental science ; agriculture ; dependent data

Abstract

Causal inference techniques are rarely applied in the environmental sciences, despite the fact that many research questions in this field are fundamentally causal. There are some interesting reasons why this is the case, which we discuss. We highlight some methodological challenges particular to these settings, including the presence of complex, unknown dependence and the occasionally surprisingly difficult task of defining the experimental unit. We provide some motivating real-world examples.