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Main Authors: Jung, Hyunseok, Liu, Xiaodong
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.09806
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author Jung, Hyunseok
Liu, Xiaodong
author_facet Jung, Hyunseok
Liu, Xiaodong
contents This paper proposes an Anderson-Rubin (AR) test for the presence of peer effects in panel data without the need to specify the network structure. The unrestricted model of our test is a linear panel data model of social interactions with dyad-specific peer effect coefficients for all potential peers. The proposed AR test evaluates if these peer effect coefficients are all zero. As the number of peer effect coefficients increases with the sample size, so does the number of instrumental variables (IVs) employed to test the restrictions under the null, rendering Bekker's many-IV environment. By extending existing many-IV asymptotic results to panel data, we establish the asymptotic validity of the proposed AR test. Our Monte Carlo simulations show the robustness and superior performance of the proposed test compared to some existing tests with misspecified networks. We provide two applications to demonstrate its empirical relevance.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2306_09806
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Testing for Peer Effects without Specifying the Network Structure
Jung, Hyunseok
Liu, Xiaodong
Econometrics
This paper proposes an Anderson-Rubin (AR) test for the presence of peer effects in panel data without the need to specify the network structure. The unrestricted model of our test is a linear panel data model of social interactions with dyad-specific peer effect coefficients for all potential peers. The proposed AR test evaluates if these peer effect coefficients are all zero. As the number of peer effect coefficients increases with the sample size, so does the number of instrumental variables (IVs) employed to test the restrictions under the null, rendering Bekker's many-IV environment. By extending existing many-IV asymptotic results to panel data, we establish the asymptotic validity of the proposed AR test. Our Monte Carlo simulations show the robustness and superior performance of the proposed test compared to some existing tests with misspecified networks. We provide two applications to demonstrate its empirical relevance.
title Testing for Peer Effects without Specifying the Network Structure
topic Econometrics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.09806