Causal Decision Making and Causal Effect Estimation Are Not the Same... and Why It Matters

Understand

Causal decision making (CDM) based on machine learning has become a routine part of business.

• Businesses algorithmically target offers, incentives, and recommendations to affect consumer behavior.
• Recently, we have seen an acceleration of research related to CDM and causal effect estimation (CEE) using machine-learned models.
• This article highlights an important perspective: CDM is not the same as CEE, and counterintuitively, accurate CEE is not necessary for accurate CDM.