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DAG factorization implies the global Markov property
Statement
Assume AC. Let be random elements in measurable spaces whose joint law is generated, in a topological order of the finite DAG , by probability kernels . For pairwise disjoint , if d-separates and in , then This is the global Markov implication. Its converse is the separate faithfulness condition in Faithfulness of a law to a DAG.
Facts & Assumptions
Given: A finite DAG-kernel factorization, measurable vertex spaces, and AC.
D-separation is equivalent to separation by in the ancestral moral graph on . D-separation is separation in the ancestral moral graph
In the moral graph each family is a clique, because every pair of parents of is joined by a moral edge. The ancestral moral graph of a DAG
A probability-kernel extension depending only on one side and the separator preserves conditional independence; conditioning on the extended variable also preserves independence of the two original sides. Conditional independence under kernel extension and conditioning
Supplied probability kernels have normalized finite associative composition. Composition of probability kernels, Kernel composition is well defined and associative
Conditional independence is the bounded-function conditional-product identity. Conditional independence given a sigma-algebra, Conditional expectation given a sigma algebra
Finite measures agreeing on a generating rectangle pi-system agree on the product sigma-algebra. Measures agreeing on a generating pi-system are equal under an increasing finite-measure exhaustion from that pi-system, The product sigma-algebra and its finite iterates
Proof
Given: The hypotheses in the statement.
Put . Marginalize vertices outside in reverse topological order: at removal each has no surviving child, so integration of its kernel gives one. The marginal on is consequently generated by the original kernels at vertices of , with their original parent sets. Reverse-order integration is elimination of final conditional kernels using [F4], not an interchange of arbitrary dependent integrations.
We prove a stronger finite-graph assertion: if a DAG's full moral graph has a partition of all vertices into with no edge from to , its kernel law satisfies . Induct on the number of vertices. For no vertices the variables are constants and the conditional-product identity is immediate. Choose a sink (the last vertex in a topological order). Marginalizing retains all other kernels and leaves the DAG with deleted; its moral graph is a subgraph of the former moral graph, so the remaining partition obeys the induction hypothesis. The original joint law is this marginal extended by : no other kernel depends on , as is a sink. This identity follows first on rectangles from the iterated composition, and then on their generated sigma-algebra by finite-measure uniqueness.
If , all its parents are in , since a parent in would give a forbidden skeleton edge. Apply the first conclusion of [F3] to the induction hypothesis with left vector , right vector and separator , extending the left vector by . This proves the assertion. If , symmetry gives the same result. If , its parents outside lie wholly in or wholly in : two parents on opposite sides would be married by a forbidden moral edge. Choose that side (either side when there are no such parents). The induction hypothesis gives independence of given , and the second conclusion of [F3], applied to , gives independence given . Thus even a conditioned vertex's kernel is retained as a kernel extension before conditioning. This completes all cases of the induction.
By [F1], the moral graph on with deleted has no component meeting both and . Let be the union of components meeting , and . Then , , and no moral edge joins to . Steps 1.2 and 2.1 applied to the marginal law of step 1.1 give independence of given . Restrict its bounded-function identity to functions of to obtain the claim. Empty endpoint sets yield constant functions and satisfy the same identity. No density, positivity, faithfulness, or regular conditional distribution on an arbitrary measurable space is used.
Depends on
- Paths, active paths, and d-separation in a finite DAG
- The ancestral moral graph of a DAG
- D-separation is separation in the ancestral moral graph
- Conditional independence under kernel extension and conditioning
- Measure kernel and probability kernel
- Composition of probability kernels
- Kernel composition is well defined and associative
- Conditional expectation given a sigma algebra
- Conditional independence given a sigma-algebra
- The Axiom of Choice
- Measures agreeing on a generating pi-system are equal under an increasing finite-measure exhaustion from that pi-system
- The product sigma-algebra and its finite iterates
- Faithfulness of a law to a DAG
Used by
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Sources
- Judea Pearl, Causal Diagrams for Empirical Research, §2-1, pp. 671–672 (standard reference, not scraped)
- Miguel A. Hernán and James M. Robins, Causal Inference: What If, Fine Point 6.1, pp. 78–79 (standard reference, not scraped)