Matthew A. Masten, Alexandre Poirier
arXiv 1 Aug 2022 · Econometrics
arXiv:2208.00552 · PDF · Extracted main text
We show that, depending on how the impact of omitted variables is measured, it can be substantially easier for omitted variables to flip coefficient signs than to drive them to zero. This behavior occurs with "Oster's delta" (Oster 2019), a widely reported robustness measure. Consequently, any time this measure is large -- suggesting that omitted variables may be unimportant -- a much smaller value reverses the sign of the parameter of interest. We propose a modified measure of robustness to address this concern. We illustrate our results in four empirical applications and two meta-analyses. We implement our methods in the companion Stata module regsensitivity.
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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.
| Reference | Intensity | Mentions | Sections | Main text | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oster2019 | unmatched citation key Oster2019 | 0.000 | 23 | 4 | 0% |
| SatyanathVoigtlanderVoth2017 | unmatched citation key SatyanathVoigtlanderVoth2017 | 0.000 | 10 | 2 | 0% |
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| 6 | Squicciarini, M. P (2020) Devotion and development: Religiosity, education, and economic progress in nineteenth-century France | 0.000 | 2 | 2 | 0% |
| BlandholEtAl2022 | unmatched citation key BlandholEtAl2022 | 0.000 | 2 | 1 | 0% |
| 8 | Abaluck, J., M. Caceres Bravo, P. Hull, and A. Starc (2021) Mortality effects and choice across private health insurance plans | 0.000 | 1 | 1 | 0% |
| 9 | Abdulkadiroglu, A., P. A. Pathak, J. Schellenberg, and C. R. Walters (2020) Do parents value school effectiveness? | 0.000 | 1 | 1 | 0% |
| 10 | Allcott, H., R. Diamond, J.-P. Dubé, J. Handbury, I. Rahkovsky, and… (2019) a): Food deserts and the causes of nutritional inequality | 0.000 | 1 | 1 | 0% |
Showing the top 10 of 39 scored citations. 3 of these could not be matched to a bibliography entry, so only the citation key is shown.
arXiv econ.EM papers that cite this one, ranked by how heavily they lean on it.
| Citing paper | Intensity | Mentions | Sections | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | An Axiomatic Approach to Comparing Sensitivity Parameters | 0.737 | 3 | 2 |
| 2 | Assessing Omitted Variable Bias when the Controls are Endogenous | 0.585 | 3 | 1 |
| 3 | Robustness to Missing Data: Breakdown Point Analysis | 0.405 | 1 | 1 |