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Semiparametric Single-Index Estimation for Average Treatment Effects

Difang Huang, Jiti Gao, Tatsushi Oka

arXiv 17 Jun 2022 · Econometrics · publishedEconometric Reviews (2025) · 2 citations (OpenAlex)

arXiv:2206.08503 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

We propose a semiparametric method to estimate the average treatment effect under the assumption of unconfoundedness given observational data. Our estimation method alleviates misspecification issues of the propensity score function by estimating the single-index link function involved through Hermite polynomials. Our approach is computationally tractable and allows for moderately large dimension covariates. We provide the large sample properties of the estimator and show its validity. Also, the average treatment effect estimator achieves the parametric rate and asymptotic normality. Our extensive Monte Carlo study shows that the proposed estimator is valid in finite samples. Applying our method to maternal smoking and infant health, we find that conventional estimates of smoking's impact on birth weight may be biased due to propensity score misspecification, and our analysis of job training programs reveals earnings effects that are more precisely estimated than in prior work. These applications demonstrate how addressing model misspecification can substantively affect our understanding of key policy-relevant treatment effects.

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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
1Dong, C., J. Gao, and B. Peng (2019) Series estimation for single-index models under constraints1.000143100%
2Liu, J., Y. Ma, and L. Wang (2018) An alternative robust estimator of average treatment effect in causal inference1.00096100%
3Sun, Y., K. X. Yan, and Q. Li (2021) Estimation of average treatment effect based on a semiparametric propensity score1.00074100%
4Hirano, K., G. Imbens, and G. Ridder (2003) Efficient estimation of average treatment effects using the estimated propensity score1.00054100%
5Chernozhukov, V., D. Chetverikov, M. Demirer, E. Duflo, C. Hansen, W… (2018) Double/debiased machine learning for treatment and structural parameters0.92843100%
6Chen, X (2007) Chapter 76 large sample sieve estimation of semi-nonparametric models0.84333100%
7Tan, Z (2010) Bounded, efficient and doubly robust estimation with inverse weighting0.84333100%
8Abadie, A. and G. Imbens (2006) Large sample properties of matching estimators for average treatment effects0.84333100%
9Abadie, A. and G. Imbens (2011) Bias-corrected matching estimators for average treatment effects0.84333100%
10Lane, P. W. and J. A. Nelder (1982) Analysis of covariance and standardization as instances of prediction0.84333100%

Showing the top 10 of 84 scored citations.