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International Journal of Epidemiology 2002;31:435-438
© International Epidemiological Association 2002

Theory and Method

Response: Defining and estimating causal effects

George Maldonado and Sander Greenland

We thank Kaufman and Kaufman (K&K),1 Dawid,2 Elwert and Winship,3 and Shafer4 for their commentaries on our paper ‘Estimating causal effects’.5 Here we hope to separate misunderstandings from substantial disagreements; we believe the latter arise only in the comments of Dawid2 and Shafer4 (and are described in refs. 6–13).

Misunderstandings

According to K&K, ‘The authors organize their presentation around an aggregate model, rather than the individual causal model that dominates elsewhere’. This is not entirely true. We organized our presentation around the target population as specified by the study question. Our target population could comprise one person, many people, or any collection of interest; our model of effects is therefore aggregate when the study question asks about a population of aggregates (e.g. all counties in California), but it is a model for effects on individuals when the study question asks about a group of individuals.

Kaufman and Kaufman then say . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Disagreements

References


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