IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v116y2026i4p1380-1414.html

Negative Control Falsification Tests for Instrumental Variable Designs

Author

Listed:
  • Oren Danieli
  • Daniel Nevo
  • Itai Walk
  • Bar Weinstein
  • Dan Zeltzer

Abstract

The validity of instrumental variable (IV) designs is typically tested using two types of falsification tests. We characterize these tests as conditional independence tests between negative control variables—proxies for unobserved variables posing a threat to the identification—and the IV or the outcome. We describe the conditions variables must satisfy in order to serve as negative controls. We show these falsification tests examine not only independence and the exclusion restriction but also functional form assumptions. Our analysis reveals conventional applications of these tests may flag problems even in valid IV designs. We offer implementation guidance to address these issues.

Suggested Citation

  • Oren Danieli & Daniel Nevo & Itai Walk & Bar Weinstein & Dan Zeltzer, 2026. "Negative Control Falsification Tests for Instrumental Variable Designs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 116(4), pages 1380-1414, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:116:y:2026:i:4:p:1380-1414
    DOI: 10.1257/aer.20240636
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20240636
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E238658V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/materials/24899
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/materials/24900
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/aer.20240636?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rui Costa & Olivia Masi & Beatriz Ribeiro & Matteo Sandi, 2026. "Sentencing severity, victim behaviour, and the prevention of domestic violence," CEP Discussion Papers dp2177, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    2. Reca Sarfati & Vod Vilfort, 2026. "Integrating Diagnostic Checks into Estimation," Papers 2604.16690, arXiv.org.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C12 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Hypothesis Testing: General
    • C18 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Methodolical Issues: General
    • C26 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimation
    • C52 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Evaluation, Validation, and Selection

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:116:y:2026:i:4:p:1380-1414. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.