EconBase
← All papers

Representativeness and Efficiency in Overidentified IV

Chun Pang Chow, Hiroyuki Kasahara

arXiv 8 Apr 2026 · Econometrics

arXiv:2604.07131 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

Under heterogeneous treatment effects, the GMM weighting matrix in overidentified IV models dictates the estimand. We show that efficient GMM downeights high-variance instruments and frequently assigning negative weights that undermine causal interpretation. Moreover, GMM cannot simultaneously achieve efficiency and accommodate researcher-specified weights. We resolve this trade-off by developing the Representative Targeting (RT) estimator. By averaging instrument-specific Wald estimators under Positive Regression Dependence, RT ensures non-negative weights while achieving the semiparametric efficiency bound for its targeted estimand. We demonstrate the heterogeneity penalty empirically in a class-size experiment and apply RT to recover the Policy-Relevant Treatment Effect within a patent leniency design.

Citation extraction

36
references
102
in-text mentions
36
distinct cited
0
self-citations
12,424
main-text words

appendix boundary found by appendix_command · 55% 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
1Mogstad, Torgovitsky and Walters (2021) The Causal Interpretation of Two-Stage Least Squares with Multiple Instrumental Variables1.00094100%
2Andrews, Chen and Tecchio (2025) The Purpose of an Estimator Is What It Does: Misspecification, Estimands, and Over-Identification1.00063100%
3Goldsmith-Pinkham, Sorkin and Swift (2020) Bartik Instruments: What, When, Why, and How1.00053100%
4Hall and Inoue (2003) The Large Sample Behaviour of the Generalized Method of Moments Estimator in Misspecified Models1.00053100%
5Imbens and Angrist (1994) Identification and Estimation of Local Average Treatment Effects0.9416583%
6Blandhol, Bonney, Mogstad and Torgovitsky (2022) When Is TSLS Actually LATE?0.9285580%
7Mogstad, Santos and Torgovitsky (2018) Using Instrumental Variables for Inference about Policy Relevant Treatment Parameters0.89911573%
8Heckman and Vytlacil (2005) Structural Equations, Treatment Effects, and Econometric Policy Evaluation0.87452100%
9Farre-Mensa, Hegde and Ljungqvist (2020) What Is a Patent Worth? Evidence from the U.S. Patent “Lottery0.8434375%
10Vytlacil (2002) Independence, Monotonicity, and Latent Index Models: An Equivalence Result0.84333100%

Showing the top 10 of 36 scored citations.