# The Blessings of Multiple Causes: A Reply to Ogburn et al. (2019)

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1910.07320 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.07320/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 15 Oct 2019.

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Causal Dynamic Variational Autoencoder for Counterfactual Regression in Longitudinal Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.10559/) (2023)
- [Learning Causality for Longitudinal Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.04980/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Ogburn et al. (2019, arXiv:1910.05438) discuss "The Blessings of Multiple Causes" (Wang and Blei, 2018, arXiv:1805.06826). Many of their remarks are interesting. But they also claim that the paper has "foundational errors" and that its "premise is...incorrect." These claims are not substantiated. There are no foundational errors; the premise is correct.