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Headline Estimation with Multiple Research Designs

Vod Vilfort

arXiv 1 Sep 2026 · Econometrics

arXiv:2609.01943 · PDF · Extracted main text

Abstract

To study a scalar parameter, a researcher may consider multiple research designs. Based on the evidence across designs, the researcher may wish to formulate a headline estimate of the parameter. I examine how to choose this headline when it is unclear which design is most appropriate for studying the parameter. I model this setting by assuming that (i) exactly one of the designs is valid for the parameter and (ii) the researcher has ambiguity about which design is valid, represented by a class of priors over the candidate designs. To account for ambiguity, I propose reporting the headline estimate that minimizes the worst-case posterior risk over the class of priors. In three applications, I show cases where accounting for ambiguity materially affects the quantitative conclusion and cases where an existing headline is already close to optimal.

Citation extraction

35
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75
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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
1Chen, Heng and Chen, Yuyu and Yang, Qingxu (2026) Women in the courtroom: Technology and justice1.000143100%
2Ganong, Peter and Greig, Fiona and Noel, Pascal and Sullivan, Daniel… (2024) Spending and job-finding impacts of expanded unemployment benefits: Evidence from administrative micro data0.874102100%
3Garin, Andrew and Koustas, Dmitri and McPherson, Carl and Norris, Sa… (2025) The impact of incarceration on employment, earnings, and tax filing0.87482100%
4Giacomini, Raffaella and Kitagawa, Toru and Read, Matthew (2021) Robust Bayesian analysis for econometrics0.73732100%
5Gilboa, Itzhak and Schmeidler, David (1989) Maxmin expected utility with non-unique prior0.73732100%
6Stoye, Jörg (2012) New perspectives on statistical decisions under ambiguity0.73732100%
7Armstrong, Timothy B and Kline, Patrick and Sun, Liyang (2025) Adapting to misspecification0.64422100%
8Berger, James O (1985) Statistical Decision Theory and Bayesian Analysis0.64422100%
9Betrò, Bruno and Ruggeri, Fabrizio (1992) Conditional Gamma-minimax actions under convex losses0.64422100%
10DasGupta, Anirban and Studden, William J (1989) Frequentist behavior of robust Bayes estimates of normal means0.64422100%

Showing the top 10 of 35 scored citations.