Average Treatment Effect Bounds with an Instrumental Variable: Theory and Practice

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos A. Flores ◽  
Xuan Chen
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Effect ◽  
Instrumental Variable ◽  
Average Treatment Effect ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Variable Theory ◽  
Average Treatment

scholarly journals Instrumental variable estimation of truncated local average treatment effects

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. e0249642
Author(s):  
Byeong Yeob Choi
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Effect ◽  
Instrumental Variable ◽  
Propensity Scores ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Target Population ◽  
Average Treatment Effect ◽  
Average Treatment ◽  
Local Average Treatment Effect ◽  
Local Average Treatment Effects ◽  
Local Average

Instrumental variable (IV) analysis is used to address unmeasured confounding when comparing two nonrandomized treatment groups. The local average treatment effect (LATE) is a causal estimand that can be identified by an IV. The LATE approach is appealing because its identification relies on weaker assumptions than those in other IV approaches requiring a homogeneous treatment effect assumption. If the instrument is confounded by some covariates, then one can use a weighting estimator, for which the outcome and treatment are weighted by instrumental propensity scores. The weighting estimator for the LATE has a large variance when the IV is weak and the target population, i.e., the compliers, is relatively small. We propose a truncated LATE that can be estimated more reliably than the regular LATE in the presence of a weak IV. In our approach, subjects who contribute substantially to the weak IV are identified by their probabilities of being compliers, and they are removed based on a pre-specified threshold. We discuss interpretation of the proposed estimand and related inference method. Simulation and real data experiments demonstrate that the proposed truncated LATE can be estimated more precisely than the standard LATE.

Beyond LATE: Estimation of the Average Treatment Effect with an Instrumental Variable

2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 492-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter M. Aronow ◽  
Allison Carnegie
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Effect ◽  
Instrumental Variable ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Average Treatment Effect ◽  
Treatment Variable ◽  
Estimation Strategy ◽  
Average Treatment ◽  
Local Average Treatment Effect ◽  
Receive Treatment ◽  
Local Average

Political scientists frequently use instrumental variables (IV) estimation to estimate the causal effect of an endogenous treatment variable. However, when the treatment effect is heterogeneous, this estimation strategy only recovers the local average treatment effect (LATE). The LATE is an average treatment effect (ATE) for a subset of the population: units that receive treatment if and only if they are induced by an exogenous IV. However, researchers may instead be interested in the ATE for the entire population of interest. In this article, we develop a simple reweighting method for estimating the ATE, shedding light on the identification challenge posed in moving from the LATE to the ATE. We apply our method to two published experiments in political science in which we demonstrate that the LATE has the potential to substantively differ from the ATE.

Estimation of local treatment effects under the binary instrumental variable model

Biometrika ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linbo Wang ◽  
Yuexia Zhang ◽  
Thomas S Richardson ◽  
James M Robins
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Effect ◽  
Instrumental Variable ◽  
Local Treatment ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Average Treatment Effect ◽  
Variable Model ◽  
Average Treatment ◽  
Local Average Treatment Effect ◽  
Local Average ◽  
Instrumental Variable Model

Abstract Instrumental variables are widely used to deal with unmeasured confounding in observational studies and imperfect randomized controlled trials. In these studies, researchers often target the so-called local average treatment effect as it is identifiable under mild conditions. In this paper, we consider estimation of the local average treatment effect under the binary instrumental variable model. We discuss the challenges for causal estimation with a binary outcome, and show that surprisingly, it can be more difficult than the case with a continuous outcome. We propose novel modelling and estimating procedures that improve upon existing proposals in terms of model congeniality, interpretability, robustness and efficiency. Our approach is illustrated via simulation studies and a real data analysis.

scholarly journals Evaluación de impacto académico y social en egresados universitarios

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 695-712
Author(s):  
Gabriel González ◽  
Luisa Díez-Echavarría ◽  
Elkin Zapa ◽  
Danilo Eusse
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Effect ◽  
Average Treatment Effect ◽  
Educación Superior ◽  
Educacion Superior ◽  
Average Treatment

Las instituciones de educación superior deben formar a sus estudiantes según requerimientos del contexto en que se desenvuelven, ya que, sobre la base de su desempeño, es donde se medirá si las políticas de desarrollo socioeconómico son efectivas. Para lograrlo, es necesario identificar el impacto de esa educación en sus egresados, y hacer los ajustes necesarios que generen mejora continua. El objetivo de este artículo es estimar el impacto académico y social de egresados del Instituto Tecnológico Metropolitano – Medellín, a través de un análisis multivariado y la estimación del modelo Average Treatment Effect (ATE). Se encontró que la educación ofrecida a esta población ha generado un impacto académico, asociado a los estudios de actualización, y dos impactos sociales, asociados a la situación laboral y al nivel de ingresos percibidos por los egresados. Se recomienda usar esta metodología en otras instituciones, ya que suele arrojar resultados más informativos y precisos que los estudios tradicionales de caracterización, y se puede medir el efecto de cualquier estrategia.

The Effect of Extension Services and Credit on Agricultural Production in Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mateus C. R. Neves ◽  
Felipe De Figueiredo Silva ◽  
Carlos Otávio Freitas
Keyword(s):  
Travel Time ◽  
Treatment Effect ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Treatment Effects ◽  
Geographic Information ◽  
Average Treatment Effect ◽  
Extension Services ◽  
Average Treatment ◽  
Andean Countries ◽  
Average Treatment Effects

In this paper we estimate the average treatment effect from access to extension services and credit on agricultural production in selected Andean countries (Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia). More specifically, we want to identify the effect of accessibility, here represented as travel time to the nearest area with 1,500 or more inhabitants per square kilometer or at least 50,000 inhabitants, on the likelihood of accessing extension and credit. To estimate the treatment effect and identify the effect of accessibility on these variables, we use data from the Colombian and Bolivian Agricultural Censuses of 2013 and 2014, respectively; a national agricultural survey from 2017 for Peru; and geographic information on travel time. We find that the average treatment effect for extension is higher compared to that of credit for farms in Bolivia and Peru, and lower for Colombia. The average treatment effects of extension and credit for Peruvian farms are $2,387.45 and $3,583.42 respectively. The average treatment effect for extension and credit are $941.92 and $668.69, respectively, while in Colombia are $1,365.98 and $1,192.51, respectively. We also find that accessibility and the likelihood of accessing these services are nonlinearly related. Results indicate that higher likelihood is associated with lower travel time, especially in the analysis of credit.

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