Conditional exchangeability (source code)

= Conditional exchangeability

= No unmeasured confounding assumption
{synonym}

In a binary-treatment <potential outcomes> model, <conditional exchangeability> given pretreatment covariates $X$ is $(Y(0),Y(1))\perp A\mid X$. Within each covariate stratum, treatment assignment then carries no information about the relevant <potential outcomes>. Together with <consistency in causal inference> and <positivity>, it permits <outcome standardization> to identify average causal contrasts. The assumption concerns unobserved counterfactual outcomes and cannot be established just by checking balance of the measured covariates. Including a large list of predictors is not by itself a guarantee that the assumption holds.