Admission requirements
Basic knowledge on causal inference is required. The course is a sequel to the course Missing data and Causal inference (4433MDCINY, given in spring 2023). Students are expected to be familiar with basic causal inference concepts, such as potential outcomes, confounding and selection bias, study designs, causal directed acyclic graphs (DAGs), and are able to apply basic methods to account for confounding (outcome regression and exposure regression) and missing data (multiple imputation) using R.
Description
The aims of data analysis often go beyond description and prediction. This course will discuss methods to answer causal questions with data. In the course Missing data and Causal Inference, you learnt to formulate causal questions within the potential outcome framework, to list the causal assumptions that are needed to identify a causal effect and to visualize such assumptions using directed acyclic graphs; Also several modern computation methods that can answer causal questions under certain conditions were discussed.
In this course you can extend your causal toolbox into more advanced areas. Several new methods will be offered, such as methods for mediation, causal discovery, time-varying exposures and natural experiments including instrumental variable analysis. Students will be matched to a particular method and will work during the course on a deeper understanding of that topic, including applying it to data and communicating results to peer students.
Course Objectives
After successful completion students are able to:
Master a new advanced causal inference topic
Apply this method in a causal data analysis using statistical software
Communicate the results of their analysis both orally and in writing.
Timetable
You will find the timetables for all courses and degree programmes of Leiden University in the tool MyTimetable (login). Any teaching activities that you have sucessfully registered for in MyStudyMap will automatically be displayed in MyTimeTable. Any timetables that you add manually, will be saved and automatically displayed the next time you sign in.
MyTimetable allows you to integrate your timetable with your calendar apps such as Outlook, Google Calendar, Apple Calendar and other calendar apps on your smartphone. Any timetable changes will be automatically synced with your calendar. If you wish, you can also receive an email notification of the change. You can turn notifications on in ‘Settings’ (after login).
For more information, watch the video or go the the 'help-page' in MyTimetable. Please note: Joint Degree students Leiden/Delft have to merge their two different timetables into one. This video explains how to do this.
Mode of Instruction
Reading tasks, working groups with discussions, peer-learning, coaching by topic expert data analysis assignment, report writing.
Assessment method
Assessment will consist of mandatory assignments and a final report, participating in discussion groups and presenting. Details will be published before the start of the course on Brightspace.
Reading list
The list of literature will be posted on Brightspace.
Registration
It is the responsibility of every student to register for courses with the new enrollment tool MyStudyMap. There are two registration periods per year: registration for the fall semester opens in July and registration for the spring semester opens in December. Please see this page for more information.
Please note that it is compulsory to both preregister and confirm your participation for every exam and retake. Not being registered for a course means that you are not allowed to participate in the final exam of the course. Confirming your exam participation is possible until ten days before the exam.
Extensive FAQ's on MyStudymap can be found here.
Contact
We will communicate with students using Brightspace.