EconBase
← All papers

Unbiased Estimation of Central Moments in Unbalanced Two- and Three-Level Models

Dan Ben-Moshe, David Genesove

arXiv 3 Feb 2026 · Econometrics · publishedEconomics Letters (2026)

arXiv:2602.03469 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

This paper derives closed-form unbiased estimators of central moments in multilevel random-effects models with unbalanced group sizes. In a two-level model, we provide unbiased estimators for the second, third, and fourth central moments under both group-level and observation-level averaging. In a three-level model, we provide unbiased estimators for the second and third central moments.

Citation extraction

12
references
12
in-text mentions
12
distinct cited
0
self-citations
2,755
main-text words

appendix boundary found by appendix_command · 41% 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
1Ben-Moshe \ Genesove (2026) Assignment at the frontier: Identifying the frontier structural function and bounding mean deviations0.40511100%
2Ben-Moshe \ Genesove (2026) Regulation and frontier housing supply0.40511100%
3Bottazzi \ Secchi (2003) `Why are distributions of firm growth rates tent-shaped?', Economics Letters 80(3), 415–4200.40511100%
4Gabaix (2011) `The granular origins of aggregate fluctuations', Econometrica 79(3), 733–7720.40511100%
5Kimball (1990) `Precautionary saving in the small and in the large', Econometrica 58(1), 53–730.40511100%
6Menezes, Geiss \ Tressler (1980) `Increasing downside risk', American Economic Review 70(5), 921–9320.40511100%
7Patterson \ Thompson (1971) `Recovery of inter-block information when block sizes are unequal', Biometrika 58(3), 545–5540.40511100%
8Searle, Casella \ McCulloch (1992) Variance Components, Wiley0.40511100%
9Guvenen, Ozkan \ Song (2014) `The nature of countercyclical income risk', Journal of Political Economy 122(3), 621–6600.40511100%
10Tukey (1957) `Variances of variance components: III0.40511100%

Showing the top 10 of 12 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
1Assignment at the Frontier: Identifying the Frontier Structural Function and Bounding Mean Deviations0.51122