Inferring latent structures via information inequalities

One of the goals of probabilistic inference is to decide whether an empirically observed distribution is compatible with a candidate Bayesian network. However, Bayesian networks with hidden variables give rise to highly non-trivial constraints on the observed distribution. Here, we propose an information-theoretic approach, based on the insight that conditions on entropies of Bayesian networks take the form of simple linear inequalities. We describe an algorithm for deriving entropic tests for latent structures. The well-known conditional independence tests appear as a special case. While the approach applies for generic Bayesian networks, we presently adopt the causal view, and show the versatility of the framework by treating several relevant problems from that domain: detecting common ancestors, quantifying the strength of causal influence, and inferring the direction of causation from two-variable marginals.

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