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On Binscatter

Matias D. Cattaneo, Richard K. Crump, Max H. Farrell, Yingjie Feng

arXiv 25 Feb 2019 · Econometrics · publishedAmerican Economic Review (2024) · 124 citations (OpenAlex)

arXiv:1902.09608 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

Binscatter is a popular method for visualizing bivariate relationships and conducting informal specification testing. We study the properties of this method formally and develop enhanced visualization and econometric binscatter tools. These include estimating conditional means with optimal binning and quantifying uncertainty. We also highlight a methodological problem related to covariate adjustment that can yield incorrect conclusions. We revisit two applications using our methodology and find substantially different results relative to those obtained using prior informal binscatter methods. General purpose software in Python, R, and Stata is provided. Our technical work is of independent interest for the nonparametric partition-based estimation literature.

Citation extraction

39
references
68
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
1Moretti (2021) The Effect of High-Tech Clusters on the Productivity of Top Inventors1.000103100%
2Akcigit, Grigsby, Nicholas and Stantcheva (2022) Taxation and Innovation in the Twentieth Century1.00084100%
3Cattaneo, Crump, Farrell and Feng (2023) Nonlinear Binscatter Methods0.92843100%
4Cattaneo, Crump, Farrell and Feng (2023) Binscatter Regressions0.84333100%
5Cattaneo, Farrell and Feng (2020) Large Sample Properties of Partitioning-Based Series Estimators self0.73732100%
6Belloni, Chernozhukov, Chetverikov and Kato (2015) Some New Asymptotic Theory for Least Squares Series: Pointwise and Uniform Results0.64422100%
7Calonico, Cattaneo and Farrell (2018) On the Effect of Bias Estimation on Coverage Accuracy in Nonparametric Inference self0.64422100%
8Calonico, Cattaneo and Farrell (2022) Coverage Error Optimal Confidence Intervals for Local Polynomial Regression self0.64422100%
9Chernozhukov, Chetverikov and Kato (2014) aGaussian Approximation of Suprema of Empirical Processes0.51121100%
10Starr and Goldfarb (2020) Binned Scatterplots: A Simple Tool to Make Research Easier and Better0.51121100%

Showing the top 10 of 39 scored citations.