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Causal Inference for Qualitative Outcomes

Riccardo Di Francesco, Giovanni Mellace

arXiv 17 Feb 2025 · Econometrics · publishedEconomics Letters (2025) · 2 citations (OpenAlex)

arXiv:2502.11691 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

Causal inference methods such as instrumental variables, regression discontinuity, and difference-in-differences are widely used to identify and estimate treatment effects. However, when outcomes are qualitative, their application poses fundamental challenges. This paper highlights these challenges and proposes an alternative framework that focuses on well-defined and interpretable estimands. We show that conventional identification assumptions suffice for identifying the new estimands and outline simple, intuitive estimation strategies that remain fully compatible with conventional econometric methods. We provide an accompanying open-source R package, $causalQual$, which is publicly available on CRAN.

Citation extraction

37
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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
1Goodman-Bacon, Andrew (2021) Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing0.5112250%
2Imbens, Guido W., Angrist, Joshua D (1994) Identification and Estimation of Local Average Treatment Effects0.5112250%
3Angrist, Joshua D, Imbens, Guido W, Rubin, Donald B (1996) Identification of causal effects using instrumental variables0.51121100%
4Yamauchi, Soichiro (2020) Difference-in-differences for ordinal outcomes: Application to the effect of mass shootings on attitudes toward gun control0.51121100%
5Borusyak, Kirill, Jaravel, Xavier, Spiess, Jann (2024) Revisiting Event-Study Designs: Robust and Efficient Estimation0.40511100%
6’t Hoff, Nadja, Lewbel, Arthur, Mellace, Giovanni Limited Monotonicity and the Combined Compliers LATE0.40511100%
7Sun, Liyang, Abraham, Sarah (2021) Estimating Dynamic Treatment Effects in Event Studies with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects0.40511100%
8Agresti, Alan, Kateri, Maria (2017) Ordinal probability effect measures for group comparisons in multinomial cumulative link models0.40511100%
9Angrist, Joshua D (2022) Empirical strategies in economics: Illuminating the path from cause to effect0.40511100%
10Athey, Susan, Imbens, Guido W (2006) Identification and inference in nonlinear difference-in-differences models0.40511100%

Showing the top 10 of 37 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
1Event-Study Designs for Discrete Outcomes under Transition Independence0.40511