EconBase
← All papers

Leveraging Covariates in Regression Discontinuity Designs

Matias D. Cattaneo, Filippo Palomba

arXiv 18 Jul 2025 · Econometrics

arXiv:2507.14311 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

It is common practice to incorporate additional covariates in empirical economics. In the context of Regression Discontinuity (RD) designs, covariate adjustment plays multiple roles, making it essential to understand its impact on analysis and conclusions. Typically implemented via local least squares regressions, covariate adjustment can serve three main distinct purposes: (i) improving the efficiency of RD average causal effect estimators, (ii) learning about heterogeneous RD policy effects, and (iii) changing the RD parameter of interest. This article discusses and illustrates empirically how to leverage covariates effectively in RD designs.

Citation extraction

13
references
24
in-text mentions
13
distinct cited
10
self-citations
4,845
main-text words

appendix boundary found by none_found · 100% 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
1Sebastian Calonico, Matias D. Cattaneo, Max H. Farrell, and Rocio Ti… (2019) Regression discontinuity designs using covariates self0.87462100%
2Matias D. Cattaneo and Rocio Titiunik (2022) Regression discontinuity designs self0.84333100%
3Jens Ludwig and Douglas L. Miller (2007) Does head start improve children's life chances? evidence from a regression discontinuity design0.84333100%
4Alberto Abadie and Matias D. Cattaneo (2018) Econometric methods for program evaluation self0.64422100%
5Sebastian Calonico, Matias D. Cattaneo, Max H. Farrell, Filippo Palo… (2025) Treatment effect heterogeneity in regression discontinuity designs self0.51121100%
6C. Blanco-Perez and A. Brodeur (2019) Transparency in empirical economic research0.40511100%
7Sebastian Calonico, Matias D. Cattaneo, Max H. Farrell, Filippo Palo… (2025) rdhte: Conditional average treatment effects in rd designs self0.40511100%
8Matias D. Cattaneo, Brigham Frandsen, and Rocio Titiunik (2015) Randomization inference in the regression discontinuity design: An application to party advantages in the u.s. senate self0.40511100%
9Matias D. Cattaneo, Nicolas Idrobo, and Rocio Titiunik (2020) A Practical Introduction to Regression Discontinuity Designs: Foundations self0.40511100%
10Matias D. Cattaneo, Nicolas Idrobo, and Rocio Titiunik (2024) A Practical Introduction to Regression Discontinuity Designs: Extensions self0.40511100%

Showing the top 10 of 13 scored citations.