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<p>This paper argues that in settings where you have intense social stratification in particular, those along racial lines, you will in turn have positivity violations which impede causal inference. Racial stratification often causes large differences in the distribution of various outcomes across different racial groups such that the covariate distribution for those groups do not overlap significantly. This lack of overlap constitutes a positivity violation. Because positivity is a necessary condition for causal inference, any failure to repair social stratification that constitutes a positivity violation undermines causal inference. As a result, I claim that if we have the epistemic goal of engaging in causal inquiry, we must remove barriers that impede the acquisition of causal knowledge. This means that repairing social stratification is required to have causal knowledge of the social world going forward.</p>

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An epistemic argument for reparations: A solution to the problem of social stratification in causal modeling

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年4月18日

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  • Alexander Williams Tolbert

摘要

This paper argues that in settings where you have intense social stratification in particular, those along racial lines, you will in turn have positivity violations which impede causal inference. Racial stratification often causes large differences in the distribution of various outcomes across different racial groups such that the covariate distribution for those groups do not overlap significantly. This lack of overlap constitutes a positivity violation. Because positivity is a necessary condition for causal inference, any failure to repair social stratification that constitutes a positivity violation undermines causal inference. As a result, I claim that if we have the epistemic goal of engaging in causal inquiry, we must remove barriers that impede the acquisition of causal knowledge. This means that repairing social stratification is required to have causal knowledge of the social world going forward.