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Identification and Estimation of Casual Mechanisms and Net Effects of a Treatment

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Author Info
Carlos A. Flores () (Department of Economics, University of Miami)
Alfonso Flores-Lagunes () (Food and Resource Economics Department, University of Florida; Department of Economicsm, University of Arizona)

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Abstract

An important goal in the analysis of the causal effect of a treatment on an outcome is to understand the mechanisms through which the treatment causally works. In the economics literature, however, there seems to be no available framework to estimate the relative importance of different causal mechanisms of a treatment. We fill this void by precisely defining a causal mechanism effect of a treatment and the causal effect of a treatment net of that mechanism using the potential outcomes framework, and by considering their identification and estimation. The definition of our parameters results in an intuitive decomposition of the total effect of a treatment that is useful for policy purposes. We offer conditions under which these causal effects can be estimated for the case of a randomly assigned treatment and when selection into the treatment is random conditional on a set of covariates. We close with two empirical applications that illustrate the concepts and methods introduced in this paper.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by University of Miami, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number 0706.

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Length: 37 pages
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Handle: RePEc:mia:wpaper:0706

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Related research
Keywords: Casual inference; post-treatment variables; principal stratification.;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
C12 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: General - - - Hypothesis Testing
C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods

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  1. Donald B. Rubin, 2004. "Direct and Indirect Causal Effects via Potential Outcomes," Scandinavian Journal of Statistics, Danish Society for Theoretical Statistics, Finnish Statistical Society, Norwegian Statistical Association and Swedish Statistical Association, vol. 31(2), pages 161-170. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Donald B. Rubin, 2005. "Causal Inference Using Potential Outcomes: Design, Modeling, Decisions," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 100, pages 322-331, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Bruce D. Meyer, 1995. "Lessons from the U.S. Unemployment Insurance Experiments," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(1), pages 91-131, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Janet Currie & Rosemary Hyson, 1999. "Is the Impact of Health Shocks Cushioned by Socioeconomic Status? The Case of Low Birthweight," NBER Working Papers 6999, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Heckman, James J & Smith, Jeffrey, 1997. "Making the Most Out of Programme Evaluations and Social Experiments: Accounting for Heterogeneity in Programme Impacts," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 64(4), pages 487-535, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Imbens, Guido W & Angrist, Joshua D, 1994. "Identification and Estimation of Local Average Treatment Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(2), pages 467-75, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  7. Heckman, James J & Ichimura, Hidehiko & Todd, Petra E, 1997. "Matching as an Econometric Evaluation Estimator: Evidence from Evaluating a Job Training Programme," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 64(4), pages 605-54, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Manski, Charles F, 1990. "Nonparametric Bounds on Treatment Effects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(2), pages 319-23, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Currie, Janet & Neidell, Matthew, 2007. "Getting inside the "Black Box" of Head Start quality: What matters and what doesn't," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 83-99, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  10. Rajeev H. Dehejia & Sadek Wahba, 1998. "Causal Effects in Non-Experimental Studies: Re-Evaluating the Evaluation of Training Programs," NBER Working Papers 6586, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Michael Lechner, 2005. "A Note on Endogenous Control Variables in Evaluation Studies," University of St. Gallen Department of Economics working paper series 2005 2005-16, Department of Economics, University of St. Gallen. [Downloadable!]
  12. Mealli, Fabrizia & Rubin, Donald B., 2003. "Assumptions allowing the estimation of direct causal effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 112(1), pages 79-87, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Michael Lechner & Ruth Miquel, 2005. "Identification of the Effects of Dynamic Treatments by Sequential Conditional Independence Assumptions," University of St. Gallen Department of Economics working paper series 2005 2005-17, Department of Economics, University of St. Gallen. [Downloadable!]
  14. Adams, Peter & Hurd, Michael D. & McFadden, Daniel & Merrill, Angela & Ribeiro, Tiago, 2003. "Healthy, wealthy, and wise? Tests for direct causal paths between health and socioeconomic status," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 112(1), pages 3-56, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  15. Alfonso Flores-Lagunes & Arturo Gonzalez & Todd Neumann, 2005. "Learning but Not Earning? The Value of Job Corps Training for Hispanic Youths," IZA Discussion Papers 1638, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  16. Black, Dan A. & Smith, J.A.Jeffrey A., 2004. "How robust is the evidence on the effects of college quality? Evidence from matching," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 121(1-2), pages 99-124. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  17. Douglas Almond & Kenneth Y. Chay & David S. Lee, 2005. "The Costs of Low Birth Weight," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 120(3), pages 1031-1083, August.
  18. Lars Skipper & Marianne Simonsen, 2006. "The costs of motherhood: an analysis using matching estimators," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(7), pages 919-934. [Downloadable!]
  19. Guido W. Imbens, 2004. "Nonparametric Estimation of Average Treatment Effects Under Exogeneity: A Review," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(1), pages 4-29, 06. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  20. Lorraine Dearden & Javier Ferri & Costas Meghir, 2002. "The Effect Of School Quality On Educational Attainment And Wages," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(1), pages 1-20, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Oscar A. Mitnik, . "Intergenerational transmission of welfare dependency: The effects of length of exposure," Working Papers 0715, University of Miami, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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This page was last updated on 2009-11-18.

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