arXiv subjects

Clint Harris

Publications and source records attributed to Clint Harris.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

Correcting Nonresponse Bias Using Panel Data on Data Requests and Responses

When subjects who respond to requests for data, such as in surveys or post-treatment follow-up, are unrepresentative of the population of interest, inferences drawn from the data can be misleading. We show that if subjects' accumulated requests and responses over time are recorded and organized as panel data, requests can be used as instruments in standard nonresponse corrections. Randomizing total requests between subjects is insufficient for identification when responses depend on time and is unnecessary when they do not. We demonstrate our method by estimating an 18-percentage-point gender gap in entrepreneurial career intentions using a survey of undergraduates at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

econ.EM↗

arXiv2022

Interpreting Instrumental Variable Estimands with Unobserved Treatment Heterogeneity: The Effects of College Education

Many treatment variables used in empirical applications nest multiple unobserved versions of a treatment. I show that instrumental variable (IV) estimands for the effect of a composite treatment are IV-specific weighted averages of effects of unobserved component treatments. Differences between IVs in unobserved component compliance produce differences in IV estimands even without treatment effect heterogeneity. I describe a monotonicity condition under which IV estimands are positively-weighted averages of unobserved component treatment effects. Next, I develop a method that allows instruments that violate this condition to contribute to estimation of treatment effects by allowing them to place nonconvex, outcome-invariant weights on unobserved component treatments across multiple outcomes. Finally, I apply the method to estimate returns to college, finding wage returns that range from 7\% to 30\% over the life cycle. My findings emphasize the importance of leveraging instrumental variables that do not shift individuals between versions of treatment, as well as the importance of policies that encourage students to attend "high-return college" in addition to those that encourage "high-return students" to attend college.

econ.GN↗

arXiv2021

Identifying and Estimating Perceived Returns to Binary Investments

I describe a method for estimating agents' perceived returns to investments that relies on cross-sectional data containing binary choices and prices, where prices may be imperfectly known to agents. This method identifies the scale of perceived returns by assuming agent knowledge of an identity that relates profits, revenues, and costs rather than by eliciting or assuming agent beliefs about structural parameters that are estimated by researchers. With this assumption, modest adjustments to standard binary choice estimators enable consistent estimation of perceived returns when using price instruments that are uncorrelated with unobserved determinants of agents' price misperceptions as well as other unobserved determinants of their perceived returns. I demonstrate the method, and the importance of using price variation that is known to agents, in a series of data simulations.

econ.EM↗