(Working Papers SES ; 508)
We propose a novel approach for causal mediation analysis based on changes-in- 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...
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In: Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, 2019, vol. 48, no. 1, p. 117-141
This study investigates the effects of a local information campaign on farmers’ interest in a rural development programme (RDP) in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The results suggest that while our intervention succeeded in informing farmers, it had a negative, albeit only marginally significant, effect on the reported possibility of using future RDP support. This puzzling result...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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In: Economics letters, 2013, vol. 120, no. 3, p. 389-391
This paper proposes a simple method for testing whether non-compliance in experiments is ignorable, i.e., not jointly related to the treatment and the outcome. The approach consists of (i) regressing the outcome variable on a constant, the treatment, the assignment indicator, and the treatment/assignment interaction and (ii) testing whether the coefficients on the latter two variables are...
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In: Economics letters, 2014, vol. 123, no. 2, p. 220-223
The nonparametric identification of the local average treatment effect (LATE) hinges on the satisfaction of three instrumental variable assumptions: (1) Unconfounded assignment of the instrument, (2) no average direct effect of the instrument on the outcome within compliance types (exclusion restric- tion), and (3) weak monotonicity of the treatment in the instrument. While (1) often appears...
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