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Structural models for policy-making: Coping with parametric uncertainty

Philipp Eisenhauer, Janoś Gabler, Lena Janys, Christopher Walsh

arXiv 1 Mar 2021 · Econometrics · 4 citations (OpenAlex)

arXiv:2103.01115 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

The ex-ante evaluation of policies using structural econometric models is based on estimated parameters as a stand-in for the true parameters. This practice ignores uncertainty in the counterfactual policy predictions of the model. We develop a generic approach that deals with parametric uncertainty using uncertainty sets and frames model-informed policy-making as a decision problem under uncertainty. The seminal human capital investment model by Keane and Wolpin (1997) provides a well-known, influential, and empirically-grounded test case. We document considerable uncertainty in the models's policy predictions and highlight the resulting policy recommendations obtained from using different formal rules of decision-making under uncertainty.

Citation extraction

74
references
105
in-text mentions
74
distinct cited
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self-citations
10,193
main-text words

appendix boundary found by appendix_command · 77% of the source is main text. Read the extracted text to check this.

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
1Keane, M. P. and Wolpin, K. I (1997) The career decisions of young men0.90916775%
2Manski, C. F (2021) Econometrics for decision making: Building foundations sketched by Haavelmo and Wald0.84333100%
3Wald, A (1950) Statistical decision functions0.84333100%
4Bureau of Labor Statistics (2019) National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort, 1979-2016 (rounds 1-27)0.7373367%
5Aguirregabiria, V. and Mira, P (2010) Dynamic discrete choice structural models: A survey0.64422100%
6Armstrong, T. B. and Kolesár, M (2021) Sensitivity analysis using approximate moment condition models0.64422100%
7Ben-Tal, A., den Hertog, D., De Waegenaere, A., Melenberg, B., and R… (2013) Robust solutions of optimization problems affected by uncertain probabilities0.64422100%
8Blesch, M. and Eisenhauer, P (2021) Robust decision-making under risk and ambiguity self0.64422100%
9Bonhomme, S. and Weidner, M (2020) Minimizing sensitivity to model misspecification0.64422100%
10Gilboa, I (2009) Theory of decision under uncertainty0.64422100%

Showing the top 10 of 74 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
1Robust decision-making under risk and ambiguity0.40511