January 2025
Intermediate
12h 41m
English
Overview
In Video Editions the narrator reads the book while the content, figures, code listings, diagrams, and text appear on the screen. Like an audiobook that you can also watch as a video.
When you know the cause of an event, you can affect its outcome. This accessible introduction to causal inference shows you how to determine causality and estimate effects using statistics and machine learning.
A/B tests or randomized controlled trials are expensive and often unfeasible in a business environment. Causal Inference for Data Science reveals the techniques and methodologies you can use to identify causes from data, even when no experiment or test has been performed.
In Causal Inference for Data Science you will learn how to:
- Model reality using causal graphs
- Estimate causal effects using statistical and machine learning techniques
- Determine when to use A/B tests, causal inference, and machine learning
- Explain and assess objectives, assumptions, risks, and limitations
- Determine if you have enough variables for your analysis
It’s possible to predict events without knowing what causes them. Understanding causality allows you both to make data-driven predictions and also intervene to affect the outcomes. Causal Inference for Data Science shows you how to build data science tools that can identify the root cause of trends and events. You’ll learn how to interpret historical data, understand customer behaviors, and empower management to apply optimal decisions.
About the Technology
Why did you get a particular result? What would have lead to a different outcome? These are the essential questions of causal inference. This powerful methodology improves your decisions by connecting cause and effect—even when you can’t run experiments, A/B tests, or expensive controlled trials.
About the Book
Causal Inference for Data Science introduces techniques to apply causal reasoning to ordinary business scenarios. And with this clearly-written, practical guide, you won’t need advanced statistics or high-level math to put causal inference into practice! By applying a simple approach based on Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs), you’ll learn to assess advertising performance, pick productive health treatments, deliver effective product pricing, and more.
What's Inside
- When to use A/B tests, causal inference, and ML
- Assess objectives, assumptions, risks, and limitations
- Apply causal inference to real business data
About the Reader
For data scientists, ML engineers, and statisticians.
About the Author
Aleix Ruiz de Villa Robert is a data scientist with a PhD in mathematical analysis from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Quotes
With intuitive explanations, application-focused insights, and real-world examples, this book offers immense practical value.
- Philipp Bach, Maintainer of the DoubleML libraries for Python and R
An essential guide for navigating the complexities of real-world data analysis.
- Adi Shavit, SWAPP
A must-read! Demystifies causal inference with a blend of theory and practice.
- Karan Gupta, SunPower Corporation
Causal relationships can mask and distort results. This book provides a set of tools to extract insights correctly.
- Peter V. Henstock, Harvard Extension
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Watch now
Unlock full access
More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.