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Contamination Bias in Linear Regressions

Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, Peter Hull, Michal Kolesár

arXiv 9 Jun 2021 · Econometrics · publishedAmerican Economic Review (2024) · 59 citations (OpenAlex)

arXiv:2106.05024 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

We study regressions with multiple treatments and a set of controls that is flexible enough to purge omitted variable bias. We show that these regressions generally fail to estimate convex averages of heterogeneous treatment effects -- instead, estimates of each treatment's effect are contaminated by non-convex averages of the effects of other treatments. We discuss three estimation approaches that avoid such contamination bias, including the targeting of easiest-to-estimate weighted average effects. A re-analysis of nine empirical applications finds economically and statistically meaningful contamination bias in observational studies; contamination bias in experimental studies is more limited due to smaller variability in propensity scores.

Citation extraction

82
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202
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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
1Krueger, Alan B (1999) Experimental estimates of education production functions1.00083100%
2Angrist, Joshua D (1998) Estimating the Labor Market Impact of Voluntary Military Service Using Social Security Data on Military Applicants1.00075100%
3Callaway, Brantly, Sant'Anna, Pedro H.C (2021) Difference-in-differences with multiple time periods0.9285480%
4Wooldridge, Jeffrey M (2021) Two-Way Fixed Effects, the Two-Way Mundlak Regression, and Dif\-fer\-ence-in-Dif\-ferences Estimators0.9285480%
5De Chaisemartin, Clément (2023) Two-Way Fixed Effects and Differences-in-Differences Estimators with Several Treatments0.8947471%
6Sun, Liyang, Abraham, Sarah (2021) Estimating Dynamic Treatment Effects in Event Studies with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects0.88810470%
7Crump, Richard K., Hotz, V. Joseph, Imbens, Guido W., Mitnik, Oscar A (2006) Moving the Goalposts: Addressing Limited Overlap in the Estimation of Average Treatment Effects by Changing the Estimand0.8434375%
8Hull, Peter D (2018) Estimating Treatment Effects in Mover Designs self0.8435360%
9Borusyak, Kirill, Jaravel, Xavier, Spiess, Jann (2024) Revisiting Event-Study Designs: Robust and Efficient Estimation0.79410450%
10(2020) Two-Way Fixed Effects Estimators with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects0.7547343%

Showing the top 10 of 82 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 Inference for Weighted Estimands1.00063
2Factor-Augmented Panel Regressions and Variance-Weighted Treatment Effects1.00053
3Dynamic Causal Effects in a Nonlinear World: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly0.92843
4Potential weights and implicit causal designs in linear regression0.843104
5Decomposition and Interpretation of Treatment Effects in Settings with Delayed Outcomes0.81142
6Difference-in-Differences when Parallel Trends Holds Conditional on Covariates0.73732
7Estimation and Inference on Average Treatment Effect in Percentage Points under Heterogeneity0.64432
82410.148710.64422
9Estimating Treatment Effects Under Bounded Heterogeneity0.64422
102SLS with Multiple Treatments0.51142