Date of Award
Spring 5-2022
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Computational and Data Sciences
First Advisor
Erik Linstead, Ph.D.
Second Advisor
Cyril Rakovski, Ph.D.
Third Advisor
Elizabeth Stevens, Ph.D.
Abstract
Free and open source software for statistical modeling and machine learning have advanced productivity in data science significantly. Packages such as SciPy in Python and caret in R provide fundamental tools for statistical modeling and machine learning in the two most popular programming languages used by data scientists. Unfortunately, robust tools similar to these are limited in terms of causal inference. The tools in R that exist lack consistent and standardized methodologies and inputs. R lacks a comprehensive package that offers traditional causal inference methods such as standardization, IP weighting, G-estimation, outcome regression, and propensity matching in one common package. CausalModels is meant to fill the gap in open source software concerning causal inference. It offers tools for these methods while accounting for biases in observational data without requiring extensive statistical knowledge from the user. For the purposes of this thesis, CausalModels creates a foundation by implementing popular fundamental methods and excludes more advanced methods that may be added over time.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
J.W. Anderson, "CausalModels: An R Library for Estimating Causal Effects," M. S. thesis, Chapman University, Orange, CA, 2022. https://doi.org/10.36837/chapman.000379