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Design-Robust Event-Study Estimation under Staggered Adoption Diagnostics, Sensitivity, and Orthogonalisation

Craig S Wright

arXiv 14 Jan 2026 · Econometrics

arXiv:2601.18801 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

This paper develops a design-first econometric framework for event-study and difference-in-differences estimands under staggered adoption with heterogeneous effects, emphasising (i) exact probability limits for conventional two-way fixed effects event-study regressions, (ii) computable design diagnostics that quantify contamination and negative-weight risk, and (iii) sensitivity-robust inference that remains uniformly valid under restricted violations of parallel trends. The approach is accompanied by orthogonal score constructions that reduce bias from high-dimensional nuisance estimation when conditioning on covariates. Theoretical results and Monte Carlo experiments jointly deliver a self-contained methodology paper suitable for finance and econometrics applications where timing variation is intrinsic to policy, regulation, and market-structure changes.

Citation extraction

23
references
145
in-text mentions
23
distinct cited
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main-text words

appendix boundary found by appendix_command · 89% 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
1Callaway, B. and P. H. C. Sant'Anna (2021) Difference-in-Differences with Multiple Time Periods1.000133100%
2Chernozhukov, V., W. K. Newey, and R. Singh (2022) Automatic Debiased Machine Learning of Causal and Structural Effects1.00093100%
3Masten, M. A. and A. Poirier (2021) Salvaging Falsified Instrumental Variable Models1.00054100%
4Sun, L. and S. Abraham (2021) Estimating Dynamic Treatment Effects in Event Studies with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects0.98421795%
5de Chaisemartin, C. and X. D'Haultfuille (2023) Two-way Fixed Effects and Differences-in-Differences with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects: A Survey0.98320895%
6Rambachan, A. and J. Roth (2023) A More Credible Approach to Parallel Trends0.97112592%
7Wing, C., M. Yozwiak, A. Hollingsworth, S. Freedman, and K. Simon (2024) Designing Difference-in-Difference Studies with Staggered Treatment Adoption: Key Concepts and Practical Guidelines0.874162100%
8Roth, J (2024) Interpreting Event-Studies from Recent Difference-in-Differences Methods0.874112100%
9Abadie, A., J. Angrist, and B. Frandsen (2025) Harvesting Differences-in-Differences and Event-Study Evidence, Working Paper 34550, National Bureau of Economic Research0.874102100%
10Sant'Anna, P. H. C. and J. Zhao (2025) Efficient Difference-in-Differences and Event Study Estimators, Tech0.87452100%

Showing the top 10 of 23 scored citations.