Alessandro Baldi Antognini, Paolo Verme
arXiv 26 Jun 2026 · Econometrics
arXiv:2606.28017 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text
This paper provides a toolkit for the study of distributional treatment effects (DTEs) focused on treatment-effect discontinuities defined as points where marginal distributional effects change sign. Building on the Treatment Effects Curve (TEC, Verme, 2010), the paper makes three contributions. First, we propose a methodological framework comprising a Horizontal Discontinuity Analysis (HDA) comparing groups in regions of opposite-signed effects using causal forests, and a Vertical Discontinuity Analysis (VDA) examining sign-switch points. Second, we adapt crossing-point asymptotics to locate where a TEC crosses zero and to test the non-tangentiality of its local slope with a bias-corrected Wald statistic. Third, we illustrate the full workflow on synthetic data and add a diagnostic application to Mexico's PROGRESA data. The paper shows how these contributions complement and expand existing instruments for DTE analyses.
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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.
| Reference | Intensity | Mentions | Sections | Main text | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manuela Angelucci and Giacomo De Giorgi (2009) Indirect effects of an aid program: How do cash transfers affect ineligibles' consumption? | 1.000 | 5 | 3 | 100% |
| 2 | S. J. Sheather and M. C. Jones (1991) A reliable data-based bandwidth selection method for kernel density estimation | 0.928 | 4 | 3 | 100% |
| 3 | Paolo Verme (2010) Stochastic dominance, poverty and the treatment effect curve self | 0.843 | 3 | 3 | 100% |
| 4 | Susan Athey, Julie Tibshirani, and Stefan Wager (2019) Generalized random forests | 0.843 | 3 | 3 | 100% |
| 5 | Stefan Wager and Susan Athey (2019) Estimation and inference of heterogeneous treatment effects using random forests | 0.843 | 3 | 3 | 100% |
| 6 | Garry F. Barrett and Stephen G. Donald (2003) Consistent tests for stochastic dominance | 0.644 | 2 | 2 | 100% |
| 7 | Victor Chernozhukov, Mert Demirer, Esther Duflo, and Iván Fernández-… (2018) Generic machine learning inference on heterogeneous treatment effects in randomized experiments, with an application to immuniza… | 0.644 | 2 | 2 | 100% |
| 8 | Russell Davidson and Jean-Yves Duclos (2000) Statistical inference for stochastic dominance and for the measurement of poverty and inequality | 0.644 | 2 | 2 | 100% |
| 9 | Anthony B. Atkinson (1970) On the measurement of inequality | 0.511 | 2 | 1 | 100% |
| 10 | Marianne P. Bitler, Jonah B. Gelbach, and Hilary W. Hoynes (2006) What mean impacts miss: Distributional effects of welfare reform experiments | 0.511 | 2 | 1 | 100% |
Showing the top 10 of 44 scored citations.