Difference-in-Differences Models in the Presence of Time-Varying Mediators

Abstract

We study difference-in-differences (DiD) designs in which a binary treatment changes an endogenous time-varying (continuous, discrete, or mixed) mediator that in turn affects an outcome. Under our model assumptions, we show that the usual DiD estimand mixes the average direct effect on the treated, the average indirect effect, and a trend bias term. A two-way fixed effects (TWFE) regression that controls for the mediator does not recover the average direct treatment effect on the treated. We show that a DiD estimand conditional on the observed mediator path identifies the conditional average direct effect for treated units at that path, and that averaging over the treated path distribution identifies the average direct effect even when unconditional parallel trends fails. A stable average mediator effect assumption helps recover the average mediator and indirect effects. The framework extends to multivariate mediators, nonlinear DiD, and multiple treatment periods settings. Existing doubly robust estimators can be used to conduct inference. Revisiting the effects of railroad access on agricultural land values, the specification yields a positive direct component not mediated by measured market access, while the corresponding indirect component is small and imprecise. A TWFE benchmark with the same sample and baseline geographic covariates gives a small, imprecise direct coefficient, whereas the original-control TWFE coefficient reverses sign.