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Statistica Sinica 36 (2026), 1083-1095

DISCUSSION ON
“CAUSAL AND COUNTERFACTUAL VIEWS OF MISSING DATA MODELS”

Alexander W. Levis and Edward H. Kennedy*

Carnegie Mellon University

Introduction: We congratulate Nabi et al. (2022) on their impressive and insightful paper, which illustrates the benefits of using causal/counterfactual perspectives and tools in missing data problems. This paper represents an important approach to missing-not-at-random (MNAR) problems, exploiting nonparametric independence restrictions for identification, as opposed to parametric/semiparametric models, or resorting to sensitivity analysis. Crucially, the authors represent these restrictions with missing data directed acyclic graphs (m-DAGs), which can be useful to determine identification in complex and interesting MNAR models. In this discussion we consider (i) how/whether other tools from causal inference could be useful in missing data problems, (ii) problems that combine missing data and causal inference together, and (iii) some work on estimation in one of the authors’ example MNAR models.


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