Identification and Inference in General Bunching Designs

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Song, Myunghyun
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866910816219955200
author Song, Myunghyun
author_facet Song, Myunghyun
contents This paper develops an econometric framework and tools for the identification and inference of a structural parameter in general bunching designs. We present point and partial identification results, which generalize previous approaches in the literature. The key assumption for point identification is the analyticity of the counterfactual density, which defines a broader class of distributions than many commonly used parametric families. In the partial identification approach, the analyticity condition is relaxed and various inequality restrictions can be incorporated. Both of our identification approaches allow for observed covariates in the model, which has previously been permitted only in limited ways. These covariates allow us to account for observable factors that influence decisions regarding the running variable. We provide a suite of counterfactual estimation and inference methods, termed the generalized polynomial strategy. Our method restores the merits of the original polynomial strategy proposed by Chetty et al. (2011) while addressing several weaknesses in the widespread practice. The efficacy of the proposed method is demonstrated compared to the polynomial estimator in a series of Monte Carlo studies within the augmented isoelastic model. We revisit the data used in Saez (2010) and find substantially different results relative to those from the polynomial strategy.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_03625
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Identification and Inference in General Bunching Designs
Song, Myunghyun
Econometrics
This paper develops an econometric framework and tools for the identification and inference of a structural parameter in general bunching designs. We present point and partial identification results, which generalize previous approaches in the literature. The key assumption for point identification is the analyticity of the counterfactual density, which defines a broader class of distributions than many commonly used parametric families. In the partial identification approach, the analyticity condition is relaxed and various inequality restrictions can be incorporated. Both of our identification approaches allow for observed covariates in the model, which has previously been permitted only in limited ways. These covariates allow us to account for observable factors that influence decisions regarding the running variable. We provide a suite of counterfactual estimation and inference methods, termed the generalized polynomial strategy. Our method restores the merits of the original polynomial strategy proposed by Chetty et al. (2011) while addressing several weaknesses in the widespread practice. The efficacy of the proposed method is demonstrated compared to the polynomial estimator in a series of Monte Carlo studies within the augmented isoelastic model. We revisit the data used in Saez (2010) and find substantially different results relative to those from the polynomial strategy.
title Identification and Inference in General Bunching Designs
topic Econometrics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.03625