Decomposing Discrimination: Causal Mediation Analysis for AI-Driven Credit Decisions
Statistical fairness metrics in AI-driven credit decisions conflate two causally distinct mechanisms: discrimination operating directly from a protected attribute to a credit outcome, and structural inequality propagating through legitimate financial features. We formalise this distinction using Pearl's framework of natural direct and indirect effects applied to the credit decision setting. Our primary theoretical contribution is an identification strategy for natural direct and indirect effects under treatment-induced confounding -- the prevalent setting in which protected attributes causally affect both financial mediators and the final decision, violating standard sequential ignorabili...
| Authors | Duraimurugan Rajamanickam |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.LG |
| Published | 29 March 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 11 September 2026 |
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