arXiv:2606.23741cs.LGcs.AI2026-06综述

系统梳理联邦因果发现与推断的框架与方法,打通从结构学习到效应估计的全流程。

A Survey on Federated Causal Discovery and Inference

论文配图:A Survey on Federated Causal Discovery and Inference
图 1 · 摘自论文原文
  • 按方法范式、联邦拓扑、结构范围三维度组织联邦因果研究
  • 首次将因果发现与效应推断视为统一流程的互补阶段
  • 适合想快速掌握该领域全貌的研究者或跨领域应用者

因果推理——包括因果结构发现和因果效应推断——是数据驱动决策的基础。现实中,可靠因果分析所需数据通常分散在各机构中,因隐私法规或通信限制无法集中。联邦学习(FL)通过无需共享原始数据即可协同分析,推动了联邦因果发现(FCD)与推断(FCI)的快速发展。然而,该领域的交叉性及缺乏系统综述,阻碍了研究者入门。本文通过多维分类体系进行系统回顾,基于三大核心设计决策:结构如何学习、数据如何划分、各方获得何种结构知识,构建了方法范式、联邦拓扑与结构范围三轴分类。进一步考察时间动态、数据异质性、缺失数据与变量集不一致等实际挑战。针对FCI,按目标估计量(平均/个体化/条件处理效应)与估计策略(传统加权法至现代深度生成架构)分类。不同于以往将FCD与FCI割裂的做法,本文将其形式化为统一联邦因果推理流程中的互补阶段,其中FCD提供有效效应估计所需的结构知识。最后,总结二者在隐私保护、通信效率、理论保证与应用场景上的共性关切,并指出未来开放挑战。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Causal reasoning, which encompasses the discovery of causal structures and the inference of causal effects, is fundamental to data-driven decision making. In practice, data for reliable causal analysis are often distributed across institutions and cannot be centralized due to privacy regulations or communication constraints. Federated learning (FL) addresses this by enabling collaborative analysis without raw data sharing, giving rise to the rapidly growing field of federated causal discovery (FCD) and inference (FCI). However, the interdisciplinary nature of this field and the absence of a comprehensive survey present barriers to entry for researchers. This paper bridges that gap by providing a systematic review through multi-dimensional taxonomies. Grounded in the three core design decisions underlying any FCD solution, namely how structures are learned, how data are partitioned, and what structural knowledge each party obtains, we organize FCD along three axes: methodological paradigm, federation topology, and structural scope. We further examine key practical dimensions, including temporal dynamics, data heterogeneity, missing data, and non-identical variable sets. For FCI, we categorize methods by target estimand (average versus individualized/conditional treatment effects) and by estimation strategy, from classical weighting methods to modern deep generative architectures. Unlike prior works that treat FCD and FCI separately, we formalize their connection as complementary stages of a unified federated causal reasoning pipeline, where FCD supplies the structural knowledge required for valid effect estimation in FCI. Finally, we highlight their shared concerns regarding privacy, communication efficiency, theoretical guarantees, and application domains, and conclude by identifying open challenges for future research.

联邦学习因果推断综述

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