Michel Csillag Finger, Vitor Possebom
arXiv 17 Sep 2026 · Econometrics
arXiv:2609.20473 · PDF · Extracted main text
We examine semiparametric solutions to contamination bias for nonbinary treatments. Deepening the discussion by Goldsmith-Pinkham et al. (2024), we detail how spline functions approximate conditional expectation and propensity score functions under weak functional-form assumptions. Reanalyzing 18 regressions across 11 studies, we compare standard linear regressions against parametric and semiparametric versions of three contamination-robust estimators. We document large point-estimate discrepancies between parametric and semiparametric approaches and find that adopting flexible semiparametric solutions may not increase statistical uncertainty substantially. We recommend that researchers verify the robustness of their conclusions to the use of semiparametric tools that address contamination bias.
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| Reference | Intensity | Mentions | Sections | Main text | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham and Peter Hull and Michal Kolesár (2024) Contamination Bias in Linear Regressions | 0.992 | 41 | 7 | 98% |
| 2 | Weisburst, Emily K (2019) Police Use of Force as an Extension of Arrests: Examining Disparities across Civilian and Officer Race | 0.909 | 8 | 3 | 75% |
| 3 | Michal Kolesár (2024) multe: Multiple Treatment Effects Regression | 0.843 | 3 | 3 | 100% |
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| 7 | Ackerberg, Daniel and Chen, Xiaohong and Hahn, Jinyong (2012) A Practical Asymptotic Variance Estimator for Two-Step Semiparametric Estimators | 0.405 | 1 | 1 | 100% |
| 8 | Bertrand, Marianne and Duflo, Esther and Mullainathan, Sendhil (2004) How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates? | 0.405 | 1 | 1 | 100% |
| 9 | Tamer Cetin (2025) Debiased Machine Learning for Contamination-Free Causal Estimation with Discrete and Continuous Treatments | 0.405 | 1 | 1 | 100% |
| 10 | Andrew Gelman and Guido Imbens (2019) Why High-Order Polynomials Should Not Be Used in Regression Discontinuity Designs | 0.405 | 1 | 1 | 100% |
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