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Optimal Estimation of Two-Way Effects under Limited Mobility

Xu Cheng, Sheng Chao Ho, Frank Schorfheide

arXiv 27 Jun 2025 · Econometrics

arXiv:2506.21987 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

We propose an empirical Bayes estimator for two-way effects in linked data sets based on a novel prior that leverages patterns of assortative matching observed in the data. To capture limited mobility we model the bipartite graph associated with the matched data in an asymptotic framework where its Laplacian matrix has small eigenvalues that converge to zero. The prior hyperparameters that control the shrinkage are determined by minimizing an unbiased risk estimate. We show the proposed empirical Bayes estimator is asymptotically optimal in compound loss, despite the weak connectivity of the bipartite graph and the potential misspecification of the prior. We estimate teacher values-added from a linked North Carolina Education Research Data Center student-teacher data set.

Citation extraction

39
references
67
in-text mentions
39
distinct cited
2
self-citations
23,485
main-text words

appendix boundary found by appendix_titled_section at “Proofs of Results in Appendix of the Paper” · 72% of the source is main text. Read the extracted text to check this.

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
1Jochmans and Weidner (2019) Fixed‐Effect Regressions on Network Data0.9416383%
2Chetty, Friedman, and Rockoff (2014) Measuring the Impacts of Teachers I: Evaluating Bias in Teacher Value-Added Estimates0.8434375%
3Verdier (2020) Estimation and Inference for Linear Models with Two-Way Fixed Effects and Sparsely Matched Data0.8307457%
4Brown, Mukherjee, and Weinstein (2018) Empirical Bayes Estimates for a Two-Way Cross-Classified Model0.81142100%
5Kane and Staiger (2008) Estimating Teacher Impacts on Student Achievement: An Experimental Evaluation0.73732100%
6Kwon (2021) Optimal Shrinkage Estimation of Fixed Effects in Linear Panel Data Models0.73732100%
7Kline, Saggio, and Slvsten (2020) Leave‐Out Estimation of Variance Components0.64422100%
8Robbins (1956) An Empirical Bayes Approach to Statistics0.64422100%
9Xie, Kou, and Brown (2012) SURE Estimates for a Heteroscedastic Hierarchical Model0.64422100%
10Gilraine, Gu, and McMillan (2020) A New Method for Estimating Teacher Value-Added0.5112250%

Showing the top 10 of 39 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
1Compound Selection Decisions: An Almost SURE Approach0.81142
20.5 in Misspecification-Robust Shrinkage and Selection for VAR Forecasts and IRFs0.40511
3Branching Fixed Effects: A Proposal for Communicating Uncertainty0.40511
4Empirical Bayes Estimation in Heterogeneous Coefficient Panel Models0.40511
5Nonparametric Empirical Bayes Confidence Intervals0.40511