8 - Mechanisms and Causal Explanation

Summary

Social scientists have recognized for decades that adequate explanations for how causes bring about their effects must, at some level, specify in empirically verifiable ways the causal pathways between causes and their outcomes. This requirement of depth of causal explanation applies to the counterfactual tradition as well. Accordingly, it is widely recognized that a consistent estimate of a counterfactually defined causal effect of D on Y may not qualify as a sufficiently deep causal account of how D effects Y, based on the standards that prevail in a particular field of study.

In this chapter, we first discuss the dangers of insufficiently deep explanations of causal effects, reconsidering the weak explanatory power of some of the natural experiments discussed already in Chapter 7. We then consider the older literature on intervening variables in the social sciences as a way to introduce the mechanism-based estimation strategy proposed by Pearl (2000). In some respects, Pearl's approach is completely new, as it shows in a novel and sophisticated way how causal mechanisms can be used to identify causal effects even when unblocked back-door paths between a causal variable and an outcome variable are present. In other respects, however, Pearl's approach is refreshingly familiar, as it helps to clarify the appropriate usage of intervening and mediating variables when attempting to deepen the explanation of a causal claim.

Independent of Pearl's important work, a diverse group of social scientists has appealed recently for the importance of mechanisms to all explanation in social science research.