Results on Counterfactual Invariance

ICML 2023 Workshop SCIS Submission14 Authors

Keywords: Counterfactuals, Invariance

TL;DR: We examine how counterfactual invariance relates to graphical properties and conditional independence.

Abstract: In this paper we provide a theoretical analysis of counterfactual invariance. We present a variety of existing definitions, study how they relate to each other and what their graphical implications are. We then turn to the current major question surrounding counterfactual invariance, how does it relate to conditional independence? We show that whilst counterfactual invariance implies conditional independence, conditional independence does not give any implications about the degree or likelihood of satisfying counterfactual invariance. Furthermore, we show that for discrete causal models counterfactually invariant functions are often constrained to be functions of particular variables, or even constant.

Submission Number: 14