Tools for causal inference from cross-sectional innovation surveys with continuous or discrete variables: Theory and applications

Abstract

This paper presents a new statistical toolkit by applying three techniques for data-driven causal inference from the machine learning community that are little-known among economists and innovation scholars: a conditional independence-based approach, additive noise models, and non-algorithmic inference by hand. We include three applications to CIS data to investigate public funding schemes for R&D investment, information sources for innovation, and innovation expenditures and firm growth. Preliminary results provide causal interpretations of some previously-observed correlations. Our statistical 'toolkit' could be a useful complement to existing techniques.