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Identification of Treatment Effects under Limited Exogenous Variation

Whitney K. Newey, Sami Stouli

arXiv 24 Nov 2018 · Econometrics

arXiv:1811.09837 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

Multidimensional heterogeneity and endogeneity are important features of a wide class of econometric models. With control variables to correct for endogeneity, nonparametric identification of treatment effects requires strong support conditions. To alleviate this requirement, we consider varying coefficients specifications for the conditional expectation function of the outcome given a treatment and control variables. This function is expressed as a linear combination of either known functions of the treatment, with unknown coefficients varying with the controls, or known functions of the controls, with unknown coefficients varying with the treatment. We use this modeling approach to give necessary and sufficient conditions for identification of average treatment effects. A sufficient condition for identification is conditional nonsingularity, that the second moment matrix of the known functions given the variable in the varying coefficients is nonsingular with probability one. For known treatment functions with sufficient variation, we find that triangular models with discrete instrument cannot identify average treatment effects when the number of support points for the instrument is less than the number of coefficients. For known functions of the controls, we find that average treatment effects can be identified in general nonseparable triangular models with binary or discrete instruments. We extend our analysis to flexible models of increasing dimension and relate conditional nonsingularity to the full support condition of Imbens and Newey (2009), thereby embedding semi- and non-parametric identification into a common framework.

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48
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103
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48
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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
1Masten, M., and A. Torgovitsky (2016) Identification of Instrumental Variable Correlated Random Coefficients Models1.00084100%
2Florens, J. P., J. J. Heckman, C. Meghir, and E. Vytlacil (2008) Identification of Treatment Effects Using Control Functions in Models with Continuous, Endogenous Treatment and Heterogeneous Ef…1.00074100%
3Chernozhukov, V., I. Fernández-Val, W. Newey, S. Stouli, and F. Vella (2020) Semiparametric Estimation of Structural Functions in Nonseparable Triangular Models self1.00065100%
4Imbens, G. W., and W. K. Newey (2009) Identification and Estimation of Triangular Simultaneous Equations Models Without Additivity0.97112692%
5Newey, W., and S. Stouli (2021) Control Variables, Discrete Instruments, and Identification of Structural Functions self0.9507486%
6Newey, W. K., and S. Stouli (2022) Heterogeneous Coefficients, Control Variables, and Identification of Multiple Treatment Effects self0.8746467%
7Chesher, A (2007) Instrumental Values0.73732100%
8D'Haultfuille, X., and P. Février (2015) Identification of Nonseparable Triangular Models with Discrete Instruments0.73732100%
9Jun, S. J (2009) Local Structural Quantile Effects in a Model with a Nonseparable Control Variable0.73732100%
10Torgovitsky, A (2015) Identification of Nonseparable Models Using Instruments with Small Support0.73732100%

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1Gaussian Transforms Modeling and the Estimation of Distributional Regression Functions0.40511