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Debiasing and $t$-tests for synthetic control inference on average causal effects

Victor Chernozhukov, Kaspar Wuthrich, Yinchu Zhu

arXiv 27 Dec 2018 · Econometrics · publishedJournal of Political Economy (2026) · 15 citations (OpenAlex)

arXiv:1812.10820 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

We propose a practical and robust method for making inferences on average treatment effects estimated by synthetic controls. We develop a $K$-fold cross-fitting procedure for bias correction. To avoid the difficult estimation of the long-run variance, inference is based on a self-normalized $t$-statistic, which has an asymptotically pivotal $t$-distribution. Our $t$-test is easy to implement, provably robust against misspecification, and valid with stationary and non-stationary data. It demonstrates an excellent small sample performance in application-based simulations and performs well relative to other methods. We illustrate the usefulness of the $t$-test by revisiting the effect of carbon taxes on emissions.

Citation extraction

76
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205
in-text mentions
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distinct cited
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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
1Andersson, J. J (2019) Carbon taxes and CO2 emissions: Sweden as a case study1.000175100%
2Chernozhukov, V., Wüthrich, K., and Zhu, Y (2021) An exact and robust conformal inference method for counterfactual and synthetic controls self1.00094100%
3Cattaneo, M. D., Feng, Y., and Titiunik, R (2021) Prediction intervals for synthetic control methods1.00073100%
4Cattaneo, M. D., Feng, Y., Palomba, F., and Titiunik, R (2023) Uncertainty quantification in synthetic controls with staggered treatment adoption1.00073100%
5Li, K. T (2020) Statistical inference for average treatment effects estimated by synthetic control methods0.97715693%
6Arkhangelsky, D., Athey, S., Hirshberg, D. A., Imbens, G. W., and Wa… (2021) Synthetic difference-in-differences0.96911591%
7Abadie, A (2021) Using synthetic controls: Feasibility, data requirements, and methodological aspects0.9285480%
8Ben-Michael, E., Feller, A., and Rothstein, J (2021) The augmented synthetic control method0.9285380%
9Doudchenko, N. and Imbens, G. W (2016) Balancing, regression, difference-in-differences and synthetic control methods: A synthesis0.92843100%
10Abadie, A., Diamond, A., and Hainmueller, J (2010) Synthetic control methods for comparative case studies: Estimating the effect of Californias tobacco control program0.84320860%

Showing the top 10 of 76 scored citations.

Cited by, within the corpus

arXiv econ.EM papers that cite this one, ranked by how heavily they lean on it.

Citing paperIntensityMentionsSections
1On the relationship between prediction intervals, tests of sharp nulls and inference on realized treatment effects in settings with few treated units0.40511
2Distributionally Robust Synthetic Control: Ensuring Robustness Against Highly Correlated Controls and Weight Shifts0.40511