Estimation and Inference in Boundary Discontinuity Designs: Location-Based Methods

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Main Authors: Cattaneo, Matias D., Titiunik, Rocio, Yu, Ruiqi Rae
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Cattaneo, Matias D.
Titiunik, Rocio
Yu, Ruiqi Rae
author_facet Cattaneo, Matias D.
Titiunik, Rocio
Yu, Ruiqi Rae
contents Boundary discontinuity designs are used to learn about causal treatment effects along a continuous assignment boundary that splits units into control and treatment groups according to a bivariate location score. We analyze location-based local polynomial treatment effect estimators that directly employ the bivariate score of each unit. We develop pointwise and uniform estimation and inference methods for the \textit{Boundary Average Treatment Effect Curve} (BATEC), as well as for two aggregated causal parameters: the \textit{Weighted Boundary Average Treatment Effect} (WBATE) and the \textit{Largest Boundary Average Treatment Effect} (LBATE). Our results cover both sharp and fuzzy (imperfect compliance) designs. We illustrate the methods with an empirical application, and provide companion general-purpose software. The supplemental appendix includes additional substantive theoretical results, methodological details, and simulation evidence.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_05670
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Estimation and Inference in Boundary Discontinuity Designs: Location-Based Methods
Cattaneo, Matias D.
Titiunik, Rocio
Yu, Ruiqi Rae
Econometrics
Statistics Theory
Applications
Methodology
Boundary discontinuity designs are used to learn about causal treatment effects along a continuous assignment boundary that splits units into control and treatment groups according to a bivariate location score. We analyze location-based local polynomial treatment effect estimators that directly employ the bivariate score of each unit. We develop pointwise and uniform estimation and inference methods for the \textit{Boundary Average Treatment Effect Curve} (BATEC), as well as for two aggregated causal parameters: the \textit{Weighted Boundary Average Treatment Effect} (WBATE) and the \textit{Largest Boundary Average Treatment Effect} (LBATE). Our results cover both sharp and fuzzy (imperfect compliance) designs. We illustrate the methods with an empirical application, and provide companion general-purpose software. The supplemental appendix includes additional substantive theoretical results, methodological details, and simulation evidence.
title Estimation and Inference in Boundary Discontinuity Designs: Location-Based Methods
topic Econometrics
Statistics Theory
Applications
Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.05670