Université de Fribourg

Testing instrument validity for LATE identification based on inequality moment constraints

Huber, Martin ; Mellace, Giovanni

In: Review of economics and statistics, 2015, vol. 97, no. 2, p. 398-411

We derive testable implications of instrument validity in just identified treat- ment effect models with endogeneity and consider several tests. The identifying assump- tions of the local average treatment effect allow us to both point identify and bound the mean potential outcomes (i) of the always takers under treatment and (ii) of the never takers under non-treatment. The point identified...

Université de Fribourg

Testing the validity of the sibling sex ratio instrument

Huber, Martin

In: Labour, 2015, vol. 29, no. 1, p. 1-14

We test the validity of the sibling sex ratio instrument in Angrist and Evans (1998) using the methods proposed by Kitagawa (2008) and Huber and Mellace (2014). The sex ratio of the first two siblings is arguably randomly assigned and influences the probability of having a third child, which makes it a candidate instrument for fertility when estimating the effect of fertility on female labor...

Université de Fribourg

The Effect of Firms' Phased Retirement Policies on the Labor Market Outcomes of Their Employees

Huber, Martin ; Lechner, Michael ; Wunsch, Conny

In: ILR review, 2016, vol. 69, no. 5, p. 1216-1248

In this article, the authors assess the impact of firms’ offering a special form of phased retirement on their male employees’ labor market outcomes. The program aims at smoothing the transition from work to retirement and at decreasing costs in the public pension and unemployment insurance schemes through an increase in employment of elderly workers who otherwise would have exited...

Université de Fribourg

Direct and indirect effects based on difference-in-differences with an application to political preferences following the Vietnam draft lottery

Deuchert, Eva ; Huber, Martin ; Schelker, Mark

(Working Papers SES ; 473 (revised))

This paper proposes a difference-in-differences approach for disentangling a total treatment effect on some outcome into a direct effect as well as an indirect effect operating through a binary intermediate variable – or mediator – within strata defined upon how the mediator reacts to the treatment. Imposing random treatment assignment along with specific common trend (and further)...

Université de Fribourg

Testing the validity of the compulsory schooling law instrument

Bolzern, Benjamin ; Huber, Martin

(Working Papers SES ; 480)

Changes in compulsory schooling laws have been proposed as an instrument for the endogenous choice of schooling. It has been argued that raising minimum schooling exogenously increases the educational attainment of a subset of pupils without directly affecting later life outcomes such as income or health. Using the method of Huber and Mellace (2015) and data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and...

Université de Fribourg

Evaluating local average and quantile treatment effects under endogeneity based on instruments : a review

Huber, Martin ; Wüthrich, Kaspar

(Working Papers SES ; 479)

This paper provides a review of methodological advancements in the evaluation of heterogeneous treatment effect models based on instrumental variable (IV) methods. We focus on models that achieve identification through a monotonicity assumption on the selection equation and analyze local average and quantile treatment effects for the subpopulation of compliers. We start with a comprehensive...

Université de Fribourg

Direct and indirect effects based on difference-in-differences with an application to political preferences following the Vietnam draft lottery

Deuchert, Eva ; Huber, Martin ; Schelker, Mark

(Working Papers SES ; 473)

This study empirically evaluates the impact of the war in eastern Ukraine on the political attitudes aThis paper proposes a difference-in-differences approach for disentangling a total treatment effect on some outcome into a direct impact as well as an indirect effect operating through a binary intermediate variable – or mediator – within strata defined upon how the mediator reacts to the...

Université de Fribourg

Evaluating an information campaign about rural development policies in (FYR) Macedonia

Huber, Martin ; Kotevska, Ana ; Martinovska-Stojcheska, Aleksandra‏ ; Solovyeva, Anna

(Working Papers SES ; 469)

This paper investigates the effects of an information campaign about a governmental rural development program (RDP) in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on the farmers’ intention to participate in the RDP. In the course of a survey among farmers, the treatment group received an information brochure with relevant details on selected RDP measures, while the control group received no...

Université de Fribourg

The finite sample performance of inference methods for propensity score matching and weighting estimators

Bodory, Hugo ; Huber, Martin ; Camponovo, Lorenzo ; Lechner, Michael

(Working Papers SES ; 466)

This paper investigates the finite sample properties of a range of inference methods for propensity score-based matching and weighting estimators frequently applied to evaluate the average treatment effect on the treated. We analyse both asymptotic approximations and bootstrap methods for computing variances and confidence intervals in our simulation design, which is based on large scale labor...

Université de Fribourg

The finite sample performance of semi- and nonparametric estimators for treatment effects and policy evaluation

Frölich, Markus ; Huber, Martin ; Wiesenfarth, Manuel

(Working Papers SES ; 454)

This paper investigates the fi nite sample performance of a comprehensive set of semi- and nonparametric estimators for treatment and policy evaluation. In contrast to previous simulation studies which mostly considered semiparametric approaches relying on parametric propensity score estimation, we also consider more fl exible approaches based on semi- or nonparametric propensity scores,...