What would the world look like if Russia had won the cold war? If the Boston Tea Party never happened? And where would we all be if Guido van Rossum had decided to pursue a career in theatre? Unfortunately we don't have the technology to slide into parallel worlds and explore alternative histories. However, it turns out we do have the tools to simulate parallel realities and give decent answers to intriguing 'what if' questions. This talk will provide a gentle introduction to these tools, or causal inference techniques.

The talk is aimed at data practitioners, preferably with basic knowledge of Python and statistics. That said, the focus of the talk is to nurture an intuitive understanding of the subject first, and implementation in Python. By the end of the talk I hope audience members could identify causal inference problems, have an intuitive understanding of the different tools they can apply to these problems, and have the appetite to further their learning!

Outline:

Introduction

• Introduction to parallel universes and "what if?" questions? [2 mins]
• The golden standard for causal inference. We'll discuss randomised controlled experiments and also set the scene for cases these aren't possible. [6 mins]

Main

• Selection bias and propensity score methods [8 mins]
• Synthetic Controls (or: creating an alternate universe on your machine) [8 mins]

Recap

• What we saw (quick recap of when causal problems emerge and how to address them) [1 min]
• What we didn't see (a few words about other techniques, DAGs, etc.) [1 min]
• Quick overview of Python tools for causal inference [2 mins]
• Where do we go from here - resources, curriculums, readings and communities.[2 mins]