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Takahide Yanagi

Publications and source records attributed to Takahide Yanagi.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

Estimating Dyadic Treatment Effects with Unknown Confounders

This paper proposes estimation and inference methods for assessing treatment effects with dyadic data. Under the assumption that the treatments follow an exchangeable distribution, our approach allows for the presence of any unobserved confounding factors that potentially cause endogeneity of treatment choice without requiring additional information other than the treatments and outcomes. Building on the literature of graphon estimation in network data analysis, we propose a neighbourhood kernel smoothing method for estimating dyadic average treatment effects, and derive the rate of convergence of the proposed estimator under certain regularity conditions. We also develop conformal inference methods for predicting outcomes conditional on treatment status. We apply our methods to international trade data to assess the impact of free trade agreements on bilateral trade flows.

econ.EM

Doubly Robust Uniform Confidence Bands for Group-Time Conditional Average Treatment Effects in Difference-in-Differences

We consider a panel data analysis to examine the heterogeneity in treatment effects with respect to groups, periods, and a pre-treatment covariate of interest in the staggered difference-in-differences setting of Callaway and Sant'Anna (2021). Under standard identification conditions, a doubly robust estimand conditional on the covariate identifies the group-time conditional average treatment effect given the covariate. Focusing on the case of a continuous covariate, we propose a three-step estimation procedure based on nonparametric local polynomial regressions and parametric estimation methods. Using uniformly valid distributional approximation results for empirical processes and weighted/multiplier bootstrapping, we develop doubly robust inference methods to construct uniform confidence bands for the group-time conditional average treatment effect function and a variety of useful summary parameters. The accompanying R package didhetero allows for easy implementation of our methods.

econ.EM

Randomization Test for the Specification of Interference Structure

This study considers testing the specification of spillover effects in causal inference. We focus on experimental settings in which the treatment assignment mechanism is known to researchers. We develop a new randomization test utilizing a hierarchical relationship between different exposures. Compared with existing approaches, our approach is essentially applicable to any null exposure specifications and produces powerful test statistics without a priori knowledge of the true interference structure. As empirical illustrations, we revisit two existing social network experiments: one on farmers' insurance adoption and the other on anti-conflict education programs.

stat.ME

Causal Inference with Noncompliance and Unknown Interference

We consider a causal inference model in which individuals interact in a social network and they may not comply with the assigned treatments. In particular, we suppose that the form of network interference is unknown to researchers. To estimate meaningful causal parameters in this situation, we introduce a new concept of exposure mapping, which summarizes potentially complicated spillover effects into a fixed dimensional statistic of instrumental variables. We investigate identification conditions for the intention-to-treat effects and the average treatment effects for compliers, while explicitly considering the possibility of misspecification of exposure mapping. Based on our identification results, we develop nonparametric estimation procedures via inverse probability weighting. Their asymptotic properties, including consistency and asymptotic normality, are investigated using an approximate neighborhood interference framework. For an empirical illustration, we apply our method to experimental data on the anti-conflict intervention school program. The proposed methods are readily available with the companion R package latenetwork.

stat.ME

An Effective Treatment Approach to Difference-in-Differences with General Treatment Patterns

We consider a general difference-in-differences model in which the treatment variable of interest may be non-binary and its value may change in each period. It is generally difficult to estimate treatment parameters defined with the potential outcome given the entire path of treatment adoption, because each treatment path may be experienced by only a small number of observations. We propose an alternative approach using the concept of effective treatment, which summarizes the treatment path into an empirically tractable low-dimensional variable, and develop doubly robust identification, estimation, and inference methods. We also provide a companion R software package.

econ.EM

Treatment Effect Models with Strategic Interaction in Treatment Decisions

This study considers treatment effect models in which others' treatment decisions can affect both one's own treatment and outcome. Focusing on the case of two-player interactions, we formulate treatment decision behavior as a complete information game with multiple equilibria. Using a latent index framework and assuming a stochastic equilibrium selection, we prove that the marginal treatment effect from one's own treatment and that from the partner are identifiable on the conditional supports of certain threshold variables determined through the game model. Based on our constructive identification results, we propose a two-step semiparametric procedure for estimating the marginal treatment effects using series approximation. We show that the proposed estimator is uniformly consistent and asymptotically normally distributed. As an empirical illustration, we investigate the impacts of risky behaviors on adolescents' academic performance.

econ.EM

Estimating Marginal Treatment Effects under Unobserved Group Heterogeneity

This paper studies treatment effect models in which individuals are classified into unobserved groups based on heterogeneous treatment rules. Using a finite mixture approach, we propose a marginal treatment effect (MTE) framework in which the treatment choice and outcome equations can be heterogeneous across groups. Under the availability of instrumental variables specific to each group, we show that the MTE for each group can be separately identified. Based on our identification result, we propose a two-step semiparametric procedure for estimating the group-wise MTE. We illustrate the usefulness of the proposed method with an application to economic returns to college education.

econ.EM

Kernel Estimation for Panel Data with Heterogeneous Dynamics

This paper proposes nonparametric kernel-smoothing estimation for panel data to examine the degree of heterogeneity across cross-sectional units. We first estimate the sample mean, autocovariances, and autocorrelations for each unit and then apply kernel smoothing to compute their density functions. The dependence of the kernel estimator on bandwidth makes asymptotic bias of very high order affect the required condition on the relative magnitudes of the cross-sectional sample size (N) and the time-series length (T). In particular, it makes the condition on N and T stronger and more complicated than those typically observed in the long-panel literature without kernel smoothing. We also consider a split-panel jackknife method to correct bias and construction of confidence intervals. An empirical application and Monte Carlo simulations illustrate our procedure in finite samples.

econ.EM

Panel Data Analysis with Heterogeneous Dynamics

This paper proposes a model-free approach to analyze panel data with heterogeneous dynamic structures across observational units. We first compute the sample mean, autocovariances, and autocorrelations for each unit, and then estimate the parameters of interest based on their empirical distributions. We then investigate the asymptotic properties of our estimators using double asymptotics and propose split-panel jackknife bias correction and inference based on the cross-sectional bootstrap. We illustrate the usefulness of our procedures by studying the deviation dynamics of the law of one price. Monte Carlo simulations confirm that the proposed bias correction is effective and yields valid inference in small samples.

econ.EM

Inference on Local Average Treatment Effects for Misclassified Treatment

We develop point-identification for the local average treatment effect when the binary treatment contains a measurement error. The standard instrumental variable estimator is inconsistent for the parameter since the measurement error is non-classical by construction. We correct the problem by identifying the distribution of the measurement error based on the use of an exogenous variable that can even be a binary covariate. The moment conditions derived from the identification lead to generalized method of moments estimation with asymptotically valid inferences. Monte Carlo simulations and an empirical illustration demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed procedure.

econ.EM