Path Signature Area-Based Causal Discovery in Coupled Time Series

Will Glad, Tom Woolf
Proceedings of The 2021 Causal Analysis Workshop Series, PMLR 160:21-38, 2021.

Abstract

Coupled dynamical systems are frequently observed in nature, but often not well under-stood in terms of their causal structure without additional domain knowledge about the system. Especially when analyzing observational time series data of dynamical systems where it is not possible to conduct controlled experiments, for example time series of cli-mate variables, it can be challenging to determine how features causally influence each other. There are many techniques available to recover causal relationships from data, such as Granger causality, convergent cross mapping, and causal graph structure learning approaches such as PCMCI. Path signatures and their associated signed areas provide a new way to approach the analysis of causally linked dynamical systems, particularly in informing a model-free, data-driven approach to algorithmic causal discovery. With this paper, we explore the use of path signatures in causal discovery and propose the application of confidence sequences to analyze the significance of the magnitude of the signed area between two variables. These confidence sequence regions converge with greater sampling length,and in conjunction with analyzing pairwise signed areas across time-shifted versions of the time series, can help identify the presence of lag/lead causal relationships. This approach provides a new way to define the confidence of a causal link existing between two time series, and ultimately may provide a framework for hypothesis testing to define whether one time series causes another.

Cite this Paper


BibTeX
@InProceedings{pmlr-v160-glad21a, title = {Path Signature Area-Based Causal Discovery in Coupled Time Series}, author = {Glad, Will and Woolf, Tom}, booktitle = {Proceedings of The 2021 Causal Analysis Workshop Series}, pages = {21--38}, year = {2021}, editor = {Ma, Sisi and Kummerfeld, Erich}, volume = {160}, series = {Proceedings of Machine Learning Research}, month = {16 Jul}, publisher = {PMLR}, pdf = {https://proceedings.mlr.press/v160/glad21a/glad21a.pdf}, url = {https://proceedings.mlr.press/v160/glad21a.html}, abstract = {Coupled dynamical systems are frequently observed in nature, but often not well under-stood in terms of their causal structure without additional domain knowledge about the system. Especially when analyzing observational time series data of dynamical systems where it is not possible to conduct controlled experiments, for example time series of cli-mate variables, it can be challenging to determine how features causally influence each other. There are many techniques available to recover causal relationships from data, such as Granger causality, convergent cross mapping, and causal graph structure learning approaches such as PCMCI. Path signatures and their associated signed areas provide a new way to approach the analysis of causally linked dynamical systems, particularly in informing a model-free, data-driven approach to algorithmic causal discovery. With this paper, we explore the use of path signatures in causal discovery and propose the application of confidence sequences to analyze the significance of the magnitude of the signed area between two variables. These confidence sequence regions converge with greater sampling length,and in conjunction with analyzing pairwise signed areas across time-shifted versions of the time series, can help identify the presence of lag/lead causal relationships. This approach provides a new way to define the confidence of a causal link existing between two time series, and ultimately may provide a framework for hypothesis testing to define whether one time series causes another.} }
Endnote
%0 Conference Paper %T Path Signature Area-Based Causal Discovery in Coupled Time Series %A Will Glad %A Tom Woolf %B Proceedings of The 2021 Causal Analysis Workshop Series %C Proceedings of Machine Learning Research %D 2021 %E Sisi Ma %E Erich Kummerfeld %F pmlr-v160-glad21a %I PMLR %P 21--38 %U https://proceedings.mlr.press/v160/glad21a.html %V 160 %X Coupled dynamical systems are frequently observed in nature, but often not well under-stood in terms of their causal structure without additional domain knowledge about the system. Especially when analyzing observational time series data of dynamical systems where it is not possible to conduct controlled experiments, for example time series of cli-mate variables, it can be challenging to determine how features causally influence each other. There are many techniques available to recover causal relationships from data, such as Granger causality, convergent cross mapping, and causal graph structure learning approaches such as PCMCI. Path signatures and their associated signed areas provide a new way to approach the analysis of causally linked dynamical systems, particularly in informing a model-free, data-driven approach to algorithmic causal discovery. With this paper, we explore the use of path signatures in causal discovery and propose the application of confidence sequences to analyze the significance of the magnitude of the signed area between two variables. These confidence sequence regions converge with greater sampling length,and in conjunction with analyzing pairwise signed areas across time-shifted versions of the time series, can help identify the presence of lag/lead causal relationships. This approach provides a new way to define the confidence of a causal link existing between two time series, and ultimately may provide a framework for hypothesis testing to define whether one time series causes another.
APA
Glad, W. & Woolf, T.. (2021). Path Signature Area-Based Causal Discovery in Coupled Time Series. Proceedings of The 2021 Causal Analysis Workshop Series, in Proceedings of Machine Learning Research 160:21-38 Available from https://proceedings.mlr.press/v160/glad21a.html.

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