Hierarchical Causal Structure Learning

Abstract

Traditional statistical approaches primarily aim to model associations between variables, but many scientific and practical questions require causal methods instead. These approaches rely on assumptions about an underlying structure, often represented by a directed acyclic graph (DAG). When all variables are measured at the same level, causal structures can be learned using existing techniques. However, no suitable methods exist when data are organized hierarchically or across multiple levels. This paper addresses such cases, where both unit-level and group-level variables are present. These multi-level structures frequently arise in fields such as agriculture, where plants (units) grow within different environments (groups). Building on nonlinear structural causal models, or additive noise models, we propose a method that accommodates unobserved confounders as well as group-specific causal functions. The approach is implemented in the R package HSCM, available at https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=HSCM.