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Interdependent Hitting Times

Jaap H. Abbring, Yifan Yu

arXiv 4 Jun 2026 · Econometrics

arXiv:2606.06251 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

This paper studies interdependent durations as equilibrium outcomes of a synchronization game, a continuous-time stopping game in which the incentive to stop increases when other players stop. We allow the payoffs to vary with both common shocks and observed and unobserved agent characteristics. The common shocks follow a spectrally negative Lévy process, a semiparametric process that includes Brownian motion as a special case but may also have jumps. We show that equilibrium outcomes can be represented as interdependent hitting times and use this to establish the game's nonparametric identification from data on stopping times and covariates. We develop maximum simulated likelihood and method of simulated moments estimators and evaluate their finite-sample and computational performance in Monte Carlo experiments. The results provide a tractable framework for identifying and estimating synchronization games from interdependent duration data.

Citation extraction

29
references
81
in-text mentions
29
distinct cited
5
self-citations
19,762
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
1Abbring, J. H. and Y. Yu (2026) Interdependent hitting times self1.000165100%
2Abbring, J. H (2012) Mixed hitting-time models self1.000103100%
3Abbring, J. H. and T. Salimans (2021) The likelihood of mixed hitting times self1.00063100%
4de Paula, A (2009) Inference in a synchronization game with social interactions0.87482100%
5Abbring, J. H (2010) Identification of dynamic discrete choice models self0.73732100%
6Murto, P (2004) Exit in duopoly under uncertainty0.73732100%
7Vitorino, M. A (2012) Empirical entry games with complementarities: An application to the shopping center industry0.73732100%
8Boyarchenko, S. and S. Levendorski (2007) Irreversible Decisions under Uncertainty: Optimal Stopping Made Easy0.64422100%
9Stokey, N (2009) The Economics of Inaction: Stochastic Control Models with Fixed Costs0.64422100%
10Gourieroux, C. and A. Monfort (1996) Simulation-Based Econometric Methods0.58531100%

Showing the top 10 of 29 scored citations.