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Identifying Causal Effects in Information Provision Experiments

Dylan Balla-Elliott

arXiv 20 Sep 2023 · Econometrics

arXiv:2309.11387 · PDF · Extracted main text

Abstract

Information treatments often shift beliefs more for people with weaker belief effects. Since standard TSLS and panel specifications in information provision experiments have weights proportional to belief updating in the first-stage, this dependence attenuates existing estimates. This is natural if people whose decisions depend on their beliefs gather information before the experiment. I propose a local least squares estimator that identifies unweighted average effects in several classes of experiments under progressively stronger versions of Bayesian updating. In five of six recent studies, average effects are larger than-in several cases more than double-estimates in standard specifications.

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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
1Maćkowiak, Bartosz and Wiederholt, Mirko Rational Inattention during an RCT0.84333100%
2Fuster, Andreas and Perez-Truglia, Ricardo and Wiederholt, Mirko and… Expectations with Endogenous Information Acquisition: An Experimental Investigation0.8307657%
3Armona, Luis and Fuster, Andreas and Zafar, Basit Home Price Expectations and Behaviour: Evidence from a Randomized Information Experiment0.79412750%
4Wiswall, Matthew and Zafar, Basit Determinants of College Major Choice: Identification Using an Information Experiment0.77313646%
5Graham, Bryan S. and Powell, James L Identification and Estimation of Average Partial Effects in “Irregular” Correlated Random Coefficient Panel Data Models0.7547443%
6Cantoni, Davide and Yang, David Y and Yuchtman, Noam and Zhang, Y Jane Protests as Strategic Games: Experimental Evidence from Hong Kong's Antiauthoritarian Movement*0.73710740%
7Masten, Matthew and Torgovitsky, Alexander Identification of Instrumental Variable Correlated Random Coefficients Models0.7373367%
8Roth, Christopher and Settele, Sonja and Wohlfart, Johannes Risk Exposure and Acquisition of Macroeconomic Information0.6939633%
9Kumar, Saten and Gorodnichenko, Yuriy and Coibion, Olivier The Effect of Macroeconomic Uncertainty on Firm Decisions0.64811627%
10Settele, Sonja How Do Beliefs about the Gender Wage Gap Affect the Demand for Public Policy?0.64415627%

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Cited by, within the corpus

arXiv econ.EM papers that cite this one, ranked by how heavily they lean on it.

Citing paperIntensityMentionsSections
1Interpreting TSLS Estimators in Information Provision Experiments0.95684