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Nonparametric instrumental variable estimation under monotonicity

Denis Chetverikov, Daniel Wilhelm

arXiv 19 Jul 2015 · Statistics — Applications · publishedEconometrica (2017) · 41 citations (OpenAlex)

arXiv:1507.05270 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

The ill-posedness of the inverse problem of recovering a regression function in a nonparametric instrumental variable model leads to estimators that may suffer from a very slow, logarithmic rate of convergence. In this paper, we show that restricting the problem to models with monotone regression functions and monotone instruments significantly weakens the ill-posedness of the problem. In stark contrast to the existing literature, the presence of a monotone instrument implies boundedness of our measure of ill-posedness when restricted to the space of monotone functions. Based on this result we derive a novel non-asymptotic error bound for the constrained estimator that imposes monotonicity of the regression function. For a given sample size, the bound is independent of the degree of ill-posedness as long as the regression function is not too steep. As an implication, the bound allows us to show that the constrained estimator converges at a fast, polynomial rate, independently of the degree of ill-posedness, in a large, but slowly shrinking neighborhood of constant functions. Our simulation study demonstrates significant finite-sample performance gains from imposing monotonicity even when the regression function is rather far from being a constant. We apply the constrained estimator to the problem of estimating gasoline demand functions from U.S. data.

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64
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Most heavily cited references

The works this paper leans on most, across its whole bibliography — not restricted to papers in our corpus. Ranked by composite intensity, which combines how often a work is mentioned, how many sections mention it, and how much of that falls in the main text rather than the appendix.

ReferenceIntensityMentionsSectionsMain text
1Lee, Linton, and Whang (2009) Testing for Stochastic Monotonicity1.000103100%
2Horowitz and Lee (2012) Uniform confidence bands for functions estimated nonparametrically with instrumental variables0.92843100%
3Blundell, Chen, and Kristensen (2007) Semi-Nonparametric IV Estimation of Shape-Invariant Engel Curves0.874122100%
4Horowitz (2012) Specification Testing in Nonparametric Instrumental Variable Estimation0.87462100%
5Chetverikov (2012) Testing Regression Monotonicity in Econometric Models self0.7639267%
6Belloni, Chernozhukov, Chetverikov, and Kato (2014) Some New Asymptotic Theory for Least Squares Series: Pointwise and Uniform Results0.7373367%
7Mammen (1991) Estimating a Smooth Monotone Regression Function0.73732100%
8Blundell, Horowitz, and Parey (2012) Measuring the price responsiveness of gasoline demand: Economic shape restrictions and nonparametric demand estimation0.69351100%
9Blundell, Horowitz, and Parey (2013) Nonparametric Estimation of a Heterogeneous Demand Function under the Slutsky Inequality Restriction0.64422100%
10Horowitz (2014) Ill-Posed Inverse Problems in Economics0.64422100%

Showing the top 10 of 64 scored citations.

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4Long Story Short: Omitted Variable Bias in Causal Machine Learning0.51142
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6One-step smoothing splines instrumental regression0.51121
7Optimal Linear Instrumental Variables Approximations0.40511
8Gaussian Transforms Modeling and the Estimation of Distributional Regression Functions0.40511
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