Jamie Robins and I have written a book that provides a cohesive presentation of concepts of, and methods for, causal inference. Much of this material is currently scattered across journals in several disciplines or confined to technical articles. We expect that the book will be of interest to anyone interested in causal inference, e.g., epidemiologists, statisticians, psychologists, economists, sociologists, political scientists, computer scientists… The book is divided in 3 parts of increasing difficulty: causal inference without models, causal inference with models, and causal inference from complex longitudinal data.
To cite the book, please use “Hernán MA, Robins JM (2020). Causal Inference: What If. Boca Raton: Chapman & Hall/CRC.”
This book is only available online. You can download it for free from this page. A print version (for purchase) is expected to become available soon. The components of the book can be accessed by clicking on the links below:
- Causal Inference: What If (preprint, 2020; revised 2024)
- NHEFS data
- Computer code
Warning: At this stage, we may still revise and correct errors without documenting the changes. Please make sure you use the most updated version of the book posted here.