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Misspecification-Averse Estimation

Isaiah Andrews, Ricky Li, Yucheng Shang

arXiv 25 Apr 2026 · Econometrics

arXiv:2604.23176 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

We study optimal estimation when the likelihood may be misspecified. Building on tools from the theory of decision-making under uncertainty, we analyze a class of axiomatically grounded optimality criteria which nests several existing misspecification-robust objectives. Within this class, we introduce the constrained multiplier criterion, which allows for flexible misspecification attitudes. We prove a local asymptotic minimax theorem for this criterion, extending a classical efficiency bound to a limit experiment which incorporates moment-constrained misspecification concerns. We characterize asymptotically optimal estimators as Bayes decision rules under a flat prior and an exponentially tilted likelihood that incorporates the moment constraints, and show that feasible plug-in analogs are asymptotically optimal.

Citation extraction

33
references
96
in-text mentions
33
distinct cited
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self-citations
14,150
main-text words

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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
1Simone Cerreia-Vioglio and Lars Peter Hansen and Fabio Maccheroni an… (2025) Making Decisions under Model Misspecification0.8947371%
2Armstrong, Timothy B. and Kline, Patrick and Sun, Liyang (2025) Adapting to Misspecification0.87482100%
3Strzalecki, Tomasz (2011) Axiomatic foundations of multiplier preferences0.8435360%
4Karun Adusumilli (2026) You’ve Got to be Efficient: Ambiguity, Misspecification and Variational Preferences0.84333100%
5Andrews, Isaiah and Chen, Jiafeng and Tecchio, Otavio (2025) The purpose of an estimator is what it does: Misspecification, estimands, and over-identification self0.84333100%
6Stéphane Bonhomme and Martin Weidner (2022) Minimizing Sensitivity to Model Misspecification0.81142100%
7John C. Duchi and Hongseok Namkoong (2021) Learning models with uniform performance via distributionally robust optimization0.73732100%
8Itzhak Gilboa and David Schmeidler (1989) Maxmin Expected Utility with Non-Unique Prior0.73732100%
9Lars Peter Hansen and Thomas J. Sargent (2001) Robust Control and Model Uncertainty0.73732100%
10van der Vaart, A. W (1998) Asymptotic Statistics0.6443267%

Showing the top 10 of 33 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
1Dynamically Consistent Statistical Decisions0.64422