[Case Study] Good Controls, Bad Controls

[PhilippBach]

1. Description of the Case Study

Analysis and illustration of selected examples from Cinelli et al. (2022)

2. Idea for the data product

• Replication of DAGs with R (dagitty/ggdag) and illustration/explanation of examples in Cinelli et al. (2022)
• Simulation possible: Generating data according to DAGs and illustrating the arising biases in an empiral analysis, maybe referring to the examples in Section "Bad controls in applied research" (replication possible!?)
• The data product could also include some interactive elements, like quizzes

3. Available resources and references

• Cinelli et al. (2022), in particular
  • Examples 3, 5, 6,
  • Example 7
  • Examples 8 & 9
  • Example 10
• Scott Cunningham's post on substack https://causalinf.substack.com/p/which-variables-do-i-need-to-control?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
• Tools: dagitty, ggdag

4. Comments

The challenge is probably mostly about identifying examples in Cinelli et al. (2022) and finding a nice way of illustration. Some of the examples are quite challenging so careful reading and selection is recommended.