IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/causin/v13y2025i1p16n1001.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Matching estimators of causal effects in clustered observational studies

Author

Listed:
  • Cui Can

    (Department of Statistics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America)

  • Zhang Yunshu

    (Department of Statistics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America)

  • Yang Shu

    (Department of Statistics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America)

  • Reich Brian J.

    (Department of Statistics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States of America)

  • Gill David A.

    (Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America)

Abstract

Marine conservation preserves fish biodiversity, protects marine and coastal ecosystems, and supports climate resilience and adaptation. Despite the importance of establishing marine protected areas (MPAs), research on the effectiveness of MPAs with different conservation policies is limited due to the lack of quantitative MPA information. In this article, by leveraging a global MPA database, we investigate the causal impact of MPA policies on fish biodiversity. To address challenges posed by this clustered and confounded observational study, we construct a bias-corrected matching estimator of the average treatment effect assuming treatment is assigned at the cluster level and a cluster-weighted bootstrap method for variance estimation. We establish the theoretical guarantees of the matching estimator and its variance estimator. Under our proposed matching framework, we recommend matching on both cluster-level and unit-level covariates to achieve efficiency. The simulation study results demonstrate that our matching strategy minimizes the bias and achieves the nominal confidence interval coverage. Applying our proposed matching method to compare different MPA policies reveals that the no-take policy is more effective than the multi-use policy in preserving fish biodiversity.

Suggested Citation

  • Cui Can & Zhang Yunshu & Yang Shu & Reich Brian J. & Gill David A., 2025. "Matching estimators of causal effects in clustered observational studies," Journal of Causal Inference, De Gruyter, vol. 13(1), pages 1-16.
  • Handle: RePEc:bpj:causin:v:13:y:2025:i:1:p:16:n:1001
    DOI: 10.1515/jci-2024-0061
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/jci-2024-0061
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/jci-2024-0061?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. A. Colin Cameron & Jonah B. Gelbach & Douglas L. Miller, 2008. "Bootstrap-Based Improvements for Inference with Clustered Errors," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 414-427, August.
    2. Bennett, Nathan James & Dearden, Philip, 2014. "Why local people do not support conservation: Community perceptions of marine protected area livelihood impacts, governance and management in Thailand," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 107-116.
    3. Graham J. Edgar & Rick D. Stuart-Smith & Trevor J. Willis & Stuart Kininmonth & Susan C. Baker & Stuart Banks & Neville S. Barrett & Mikel A. Becerro & Anthony T. F. Bernard & Just Berkhout & Colin D., 2014. "Global conservation outcomes depend on marine protected areas with five key features," Nature, Nature, vol. 506(7487), pages 216-220, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Evan Artis & Noella J Gray & Lisa M Campbell & Rebecca L Gruby & Leslie Acton & Sarah Bess Zigler & Lillian Mitchell, 2020. "Stakeholder perspectives on large-scale marine protected areas," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-17, September.
    2. Xinyuan Liang & Jie He & Xiaobin Jin & Xiaolin Zhang & Jingping Liu & Yinkang Zhou, 2024. "A new framework for optimizing ecological conservation redline of China: A case from an environment‐development conflict area," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(3), pages 1616-1633, June.
    3. Andrea Mast & David Gill & Gabby N Ahmadia & Emily S Darling & Dominic A Andradi-Brown & Jonas Geldman & Graham Epstein & M Aaron MacNeil, 2025. "Shared governance increases marine protected area effectiveness," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 20(1), pages 1-21, January.
    4. Venetia Alexa Hargreaves-Allen & Susana Mourato & Eleanor Jane Milner-Gulland, 2017. "Drivers of coral reef marine protected area performance," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(6), pages 1-21, June.
    5. repec:osf:marxiv:y9mfc_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Fabrizio D’Ascenzo & Andrea Rocchi & Stefano Cerioni & Gaetano Zarlenga & Nicolò Passeri & Francesco Piacentini & Cristina Lo Fazio & Cristina Gerardis & Clara Cicatiello, 2022. "Conveying environmental information to fishers: a smartphone application on marine protected areas," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 12(3), pages 453-465, September.
    7. Bennett, Nathan James & Dearden, Philip, 2014. "From measuring outcomes to providing inputs: Governance, management, and local development for more effective marine protected areas," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(PA), pages 96-110.
    8. Friedrich, Sarah & Pauly, Markus, 2018. "MATS: Inference for potentially singular and heteroscedastic MANOVA," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 166-179.
    9. Sandy Fréret & Denis Maguain, 2017. "The effects of agglomeration on tax competition: evidence from a two-regime spatial panel model on French data," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 24(6), pages 1100-1140, December.
    10. Francesco Berlingieri & Matija Kovacic, 2025. "Health and relationship quality of sexual minorities in Europe," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 38(1), pages 1-39, March.
    11. Cantoni, Enrico & Gazzè, Ludovica & Schafer, Jerome, 2021. "Turnout in concurrent elections: Evidence from two quasi-experiments in Italy," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    12. Choi, Eleanor Jawon & Choi, Jaewoo & Son, Hyelim, 2020. "The long-term effects of labor market entry in a recession: Evidence from the Asian financial crisis," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    13. Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C. & Zhao, Jun, 2020. "Doubly robust difference-in-differences estimators," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 219(1), pages 101-122.
    14. Pantelis Kammas & Vassilis Sarantides, 2025. "“Votes for Women” on the edge of urbanization," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 38(1), pages 1-35, March.
    15. Corno, Lucia & Voena, Alessandra, 2023. "Child marriage as informal insurance: Empirical evidence and policy simulations," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    16. Wissmann, Daniel, 2020. "Finally a Smoking Gun," Discussion Papers in Economics 73026, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    17. Ilhom Abdulloev & Ira N Gang & Myeong-Su Yun, 2014. "Migration, Education and the Gender Gap in Labour Force Participation," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 26(4), pages 509-526, September.
    18. Hamid Boustanifar & Everett Grant & Ariell Reshef, 2018. "Wages and Human Capital in Finance: International Evidence, 1970–2011 [Financial reform: what shakes it? What shapes it?]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 22(2), pages 699-745.
    19. Marcel Fafchamps & Julien Labonne, 2017. "Do Politicians’ Relatives Get Better Jobs? Evidence from Municipal Elections," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 33(2), pages 268-300.
    20. Silverio-Murillo, Adan & Hoehn-Velasco, Lauren & Rodriguez Tirado, Abel & Balmori de la Miyar, Jose Roberto, 2021. "COVID-19 blues: Lockdowns and mental health-related google searches in Latin America," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    21. Kjetil Bjorvatn & Alexander W. Cappelen & Linda Helgesson Sekei & Erik Ø. Sørensen & Bertil Tungodden, 2020. "Teaching Through Television: Experimental Evidence on Entrepreneurship Education in Tanzania," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(6), pages 2308-2325, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:bpj:causin:v:13:y:2025:i:1:p:16:n:1001. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyterbrill.com .

    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.