# A Crash Course in Good and Bad Controls

“A Crash Course in Good and Bad Controls” (2022), by Carlos Cinelli et al. Mathematics research paper. Original abstract below, unchanged. No free PDF was found.

- Authors: Carlos Cinelli, Andrew Forney, Judea Pearl
- Published: May 20, 2022
- Field: Mathematics
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00491241221099552
- Source: https://doi.org/10.1177/00491241221099552

## Abstract

Many students of statistics and econometrics express frustration with the way a problem known as “bad control” is treated in the traditional literature. The issue arises when the addition of a variable to a regression equation produces an unintended discrepancy between the regression coefficient and the effect that the coefficient is intended to represent. Avoiding such discrepancies presents a challenge to all analysts in the data intensive sciences. This note describes graphical tools for understanding, visualizing, and resolving the problem through a series of illustrative examples. By making this “crash course” accessible to instructors and practitioners, we hope to avail these tools to a broader community of scientists concerned with the causal interpretation of regression models.

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