by Do any benefits of alcohol outweigh the risks? .[embedded content] Identifying the data generating process sure is important if we want to be able to understand data. Finding a correlation between drinking alcohol and mortality does not explain anything, and certainly does not mean that you have been able to identify a causal relation between variables. Regressing on covariates is not enough. There are tons of alternative explanations for the (alleged) causal relationship, and as long as you haven’t been able to convincingly block them all, you haven’t really succeeded with your identification strategy.
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Lars Pålsson Syll considers the following as important: Statistics & Econometrics
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Do any benefits of alcohol outweigh the risks?
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Identifying the data generating process sure is important if we want to be able to understand data. Finding a correlation between drinking alcohol and mortality does not explain anything, and certainly does not mean that you have been able to identify a causal relation between variables. Regressing on covariates is not enough. There are tons of alternative explanations for the (alleged) causal relationship, and as long as you haven’t been able to convincingly block them all, you haven’t really succeeded with your identification strategy.