Université de Fribourg

Direct and Indirect Effects based on Changes-in-Changes

Huber, Martin ; Schelker, Mark ; Strittmatter, Anthony

In: Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, 2019, p. 1-60

We propose a novel approach for causal mediation analysis based on changesin- changes assumptions restricting unobserved heterogeneity over time. This allows disentangling the causal effect of a binary treatment on a continuous outcome into an indirect effect operating through a binary intermediate variable (called mediator) and a direct effect running via other causal mechanisms. We identify...

Université de Fribourg

Nonparametric estimation of natural direct and indirect effects based on inverse probability weighting

Huber, Martin ; Yu-Chin, Hsu ; Tsung-Chih, Lai

In: Journal of Econometric Methods, 2019, vol. 8, no. 1, p. 1-20

Using a sequential conditional independence assumption, this paper discusses fully nonparametric estimation of natural direct and indirect causal effects in causal mediation analysis based on inverse probability weighting. We propose estimators of the average indirect effect of a binary treatment, which operates through intermediate variables (or mediators) on the causal path between the...

Université de Fribourg

Identifying causal mechanisms (primarily) based on inverse probability weighting

Huber, Martin

In: Journal of Applied Econometrics, 2014, vol. 29, no. 6, p. 920-943

This paper demonstrates the identification of causal mechanisms of a binary treatment under selection on observables, (primarily) based on inverse probability weighting; i.e. we consider the average indirect effect of the treatment, which operates through an intermediate variable (or mediator) that is situated on the causal path between the treatment and the outcome, as well as the...