Causal Inference 101

5 min read

Robustness and sensitivity analysis

How strong would hidden confounding need to be to overturn your conclusion? Practical sensitivity thinking.

Every observational study faces unmeasured confounding. Sensitivity analysis asks: how large would the bias need to be to change the sign or significance of the estimate?

Robustness means trying alternative specifications — different covariate sets, estimators, sample restrictions — and checking whether conclusions hold.

What to report

  • Primary estimate with confidence interval.
  • Balance or overlap diagnostics.
  • At least one alternative estimator.
  • Refutation or placebo results when available.
  • Plain-language limits for decision makers.

Run this method on your data — no Python

CausalLens runs matching, DiD, causal forests, DoWhy refutation, and more — with balance tables, sensitivity checks, and PDF export.