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Estimation and Inference for Causal Functions with Multiway Clustered Data

Nan Liu, Yanbo Liu, Yuya Sasaki

arXiv 10 Sep 2024 · Econometrics

arXiv:2409.06654 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

This paper proposes methods of estimation and uniform inference for a general class of causal functions, such as the conditional average treatment effects and the continuous treatment effects, under multiway clustering. The causal function is identified as a conditional expectation of an adjusted (Neyman-orthogonal) signal that depends on high-dimensional nuisance parameters. We propose a two-step procedure where the first step uses machine learning to estimate the high-dimensional nuisance parameters. The second step projects the estimated Neyman-orthogonal signal onto a dictionary of basis functions whose dimension grows with the sample size. For this two-step procedure, we propose both the full-sample and the multiway cross-fitting estimation approaches. A functional limit theory is derived for these estimators. To construct the uniform confidence bands, we develop a novel resampling procedure, called the multiway cluster-robust sieve score bootstrap, that extends the sieve score bootstrap (Chen and Christensen, 2018) to the novel setting with multiway clustering. Extensive numerical simulations showcase that our methods achieve desirable finite-sample behaviors. We apply the proposed methods to analyze the causal relationship between mistrust levels in Africa and the historical slave trade. Our analysis rejects the null hypothesis of uniformly zero effects and reveals heterogeneous treatment effects, with significant impacts at higher levels of trade volumes.

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38
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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
1Chen, X. and T. M. Christensen (2018) Optimal sup-norm rates and uniform inference on nonlinear functionals of nonparametric iv regression1.00083100%
2Fan, Q., Y.-C. Hsu, R. P. Lieli, and Y. Zhang (2022) Estimation of conditional average treatment effects with high-dimensional data0.9285580%
3Semenova, V. and V. Chernozhukov (2021) Debiased machine learning of conditional average treatment effects and other causal functions0.8434475%
4Davezies, L., X. D’Haultfuille, and Y. Guyonvarch (2021) Empirical process results for exchangeable arrays0.7374350%
5Kennedy, E. H., Z. Ma, M. D. McHugh, and D. S. Small (2017) Non-parametric methods for doubly robust estimation of continuous treatment effects0.7374350%
6Chiang, H. D., K. Kato, Y. Ma, and Y. Sasaki (2022) Multiway cluster robust double/debiased machine learning0.7373367%
7Chiang, H. D., K. Kato, and Y. Sasaki (2021) Inference for high-dimensional exchangeable arrays0.71411536%
8Chernozhukov, V., D. Chetverikov, M. Demirer, E. Duflo, C. Hansen, W… (2018) Double/debiased machine learning for treatment and structural parameters0.64422100%
9Menzel, K (2021) Bootstrap with cluster-dependence in two or more dimensions0.64422100%
10Belloni, A., V. Chernozhukov, D. Chetverikov, and K. Kato (2015) Some new asymptotic theory for least squares series: Pointwise and uniform results0.5113233%

Showing the top 10 of 38 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
12502.030190.84333
2Maximal Inequalities for Separately Exchangeable Empirical Processes0.40511
3Cross-Fitting-Free Debiased Machine Learning with Multiway Dependence0.40511