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Mastering Panel 'Metrics: Causal Impact of Democracy on Growth

Shuowen Chen, Victor Chernozhukov, Iván Fernández-Val

arXiv 12 Jan 2019 · Econometrics · publishedAEA Papers and Proceedings (2019) · 21 citations (OpenAlex)

arXiv:1901.03821 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

The relationship between democracy and economic growth is of long-standing interest. We revisit the panel data analysis of this relationship by Acemoglu, Naidu, Restrepo and Robinson (forthcoming) using state of the art econometric methods. We argue that this and lots of other panel data settings in economics are in fact high-dimensional, resulting in principal estimators -- the fixed effects (FE) and Arellano-Bond (AB) estimators -- to be biased to the degree that invalidates statistical inference. We can however remove these biases by using simple analytical and sample-splitting methods, and thereby restore valid statistical inference. We find that the debiased FE and AB estimators produce substantially higher estimates of the long-run effect of democracy on growth, providing even stronger support for the key hypothesis in Acemoglu, Naidu, Restrepo and Robinson (forthcoming). Given the ubiquitous nature of panel data, we conclude that the use of debiased panel data estimators should substantially improve the quality of empirical inference in economics.

Citation extraction

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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
1Daron Acemoglu, Suresh Naidu, Pascual Restrepo \ James A. Robinson Democracy Does Cause Growth0.87472100%
2Iván Fernández-Val \ Martin Weidner (2018) Fixed Effects Estimation of Large-TPanel Data Models0.51121100%
3Jinyong Hahn \ Guido Kuersteiner (2011) Bias reduction for dynamic nonlinear panel models with fixed effects0.51121100%
4Manuel Arellano \ Stephen Bond (1991) Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations0.40511100%
5Alexander Chudik, M. Hashem Pesaran \ Jui-Chung Yang (2018) Half-panel jackknife fixed-effects estimation of linear panels with weakly exogenous regressors0.40511100%
6Geert Dhaene \ Koen Jochmans (2015) Split-panel Jackknife Estimation of Fixed-effect Models0.40511100%
7Iván Fernández-Val \ Martin Weidner (2016) Individual and time effects in nonlinear panel models with large N, T0.40511100%
8Jinyong Hahn, Jerry Hausman \ Guido Kuersteiner (2005) Bias Corrected Instrumental Variables Estimation for Dynamic Panel Models with Fixed Effects0.40511100%
9Jinyong Hahn \ Whitney Newey (2004) Jackknife and Analytical Bias Reduction for Nonlinear Panel Models0.40511100%
10Jan F. Kiviet (1995) On bias, inconsistency, and efficiency of various estimators in dynamic panel data models0.40511100%

Showing the top 10 of 13 scored citations.

Cited by, within the corpus

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1Arellano-Bond LASSO Estimator for Dynamic Linear Panel Models$^*$0.92843
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3Inference in Unbalanced Panel Data Models with Interactive Fixed Effects0.51121
4Automatically Differentiable Random Coefficient Logistic Demand Estimation0.40511
5Nickell Bias in Panel Local Projection: Financial Crises Are Worse Than You Think$^$0.40511