Please help me with estimating the best guess

KittyWang

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Nov 30, 2021
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Here is a question in the book CAUSAL INFERENCE IN STATISTICS: A PRIMER.

Suppose we have the following SCM. Assume all exogenous variables are independent and that the expected value of each is 0.
V={X, Y, Z}, U={[imath]U_X, U_Y, U_Z[/imath]}, F={[imath]{f_X, f_Y, f_Z}[/imath]},
[math]f_X:X=U_X[/math] [math]f_Y:Y=X/3+U_Y[/math] [math]f_Z:Z=Y/16+U_Z[/math]
(e) Assume that all exogenous variables are normally distributed with zero means and unit variance, that is, σ=1.
(i) Determine the best guess of X, given that we observed Y = 2.​
(ii) (Advanced) Determine the best guess of Y, given that we observed X = 1 and Z = 3.​
[Hint: You may wish to use the technique of multiple regression, together with the fact that, for every three normally distributed variables, say X, Y, and Z, we have [imath]E[Y|X=x,Z=z]=R_{YX\cdot Z}x+R_{YZ\cdot X}z[/imath] ]​

For (i), the solution provided says that the regression coefficient of X∼Y should be [imath]\frac{1}{3}/(1+\frac{1}{9})=\frac{9}{30}=0.3[/imath]. So the best guess should be 0.6.

I totally can't understand where the idea of solution comes from. I can get the best guess of the value of Y, given that we observe X=x. But in reverse it makes me confused.
Could you please tell me how to calculate it and the basic idea? Thank you very much!
 
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