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Bounds for Treatment Effects in the Presence of Anticipatory Behavior

Aibo Gong

arXiv 12 Nov 2021 · Econometrics

arXiv:2111.06573 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

In program evaluations, units can often anticipate the implementation of a new policy before it occurs. Such anticipatory behavior can lead to units' outcomes becoming dependent on their future treatment assignments. In this paper, I employ a potential-outcomes framework to analyze the treatment effect with anticipation. I start with a classical difference-in-differences model with two time periods and provide identified sets with easy-to-implement estimation and inference strategies for causal parameters. Empirical applications and generalizations are provided. I illustrate my results by analyzing the effect of an early retirement incentive program for teachers, which the target units were likely to anticipate, on student achievement. The empirical results show the result can be overestimated by up to 30% in the worst case and demonstrate the potential pitfalls of failing to consider anticipation in policy evaluation.

Citation extraction

24
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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
1Imbens, G. W. and C. F. Manski (2004) Confidence intervals for partially identified parameters0.8947371%
2Fitzpatrick, M. D. and M. F. Lovenheim (2014) Early retirement incentives and student achievement0.8226283%
3Stoye, J (2009) More on confidence intervals for partially identified parameters0.7375260%
4Malani, A. and J. Reif (2015) Interpreting pre-trends as anticipation: Impact on estimated treatment effects from tort reform0.51121100%
5Sun, L. and S. Abraham (2020) Estimating dynamic treatment effects in event studies with heterogeneous treatment effects0.4816217%
6Abadie, A. and M. D. Cattaneo (2018) Econometric methods for program evaluation0.40511100%
7Athey, S. and G. W. Imbens (2017) The econometrics of randomized experiments0.40511100%
8Borusyak, K. and X. Jaravel (2017) Revisiting event study designs0.40511100%
9Bosković, B. and L. Nstbakken (2018) How much does anticipation matter? evidence from anticipated regulation and land prices0.40511100%
10De Chaisemartin, C. and X. d'Haultfoeuille (2020) Two-way fixed effects estimators with heterogeneous treatment effects0.40511100%

Showing the top 10 of 24 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
1Refining the Notion of No Anticipation in Difference-in-Differences Studies0.73732
2A Joint Analysis of Sensitivity to Anticipation and Parallel Trends Violations0.73732