IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/stapro/v78y2008i2p190-195.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A note on endogenous control variables in causal studies

Author

Listed:
  • Lechner, Michael

Abstract

The issue of potentially endogenous control variables in causal studies based on the assumption of no selection bias conditional on observables (conditional independence assumption, CIA) is discussed. The paper shows that the standard formulation of the CIA obscures the endogeneity problem. It suggests a CIA based on potential variables together with explicit exogeneity conditions, which allows a separate assessment of the endogeneity bias and the plausibility of the CIA.

Suggested Citation

  • Lechner, Michael, 2008. "A note on endogenous control variables in causal studies," Statistics & Probability Letters, Elsevier, vol. 78(2), pages 190-195, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:stapro:v:78:y:2008:i:2:p:190-195
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167-7152(07)00213-1
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James J. Heckman & Edward Vytlacil, 2005. "Structural Equations, Treatment Effects, and Econometric Policy Evaluation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 73(3), pages 669-738, May.
    2. Michael Gerfin & Michael Lechner, 2002. "A Microeconometric Evaluation of the Active Labour Market Policy in Switzerland," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(482), pages 854-893, October.
    3. Barbara Sianesi, 2004. "An Evaluation of the Swedish System of Active Labor Market Programs in the 1990s," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(1), pages 133-155, February.
    4. Michael Lechner & Ruth Miquel, 2010. "Identification of the effects of dynamic treatments by sequential conditional independence assumptions," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 111-137, August.
    5. 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;Swedish Statistical Association, vol. 31(2), pages 161-170, June.
    6. Michael Lechner, 2002. "Program Heterogeneity And Propensity Score Matching: An Application To The Evaluation Of Active Labor Market Policies," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(2), pages 205-220, May.
    7. Constantine E. Frangakis & Donald B. Rubin, 2002. "Principal Stratification in Causal Inference," Biometrics, The International Biometric Society, vol. 58(1), pages 21-29, March.
    8. Heckman, James J. & Lalonde, Robert J. & Smith, Jeffrey A., 1999. "The economics and econometrics of active labor market programs," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 31, pages 1865-2097, Elsevier.
    9. 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.
    10. 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, February.
    11. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Markus Frölich, 2008. "Parametric and Nonparametric Regression in the Presence of Endogenous Control Variables," International Statistical Review, International Statistical Institute, vol. 76(2), pages 214-227, August.
    2. Asfaw, Abraham Abebe, 2018. "The distributional effect of investment in early childhood nutrition: A panel quantile approach," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 63-74.
    3. Démurger, Sylvie & Wang, Xiaoqian, 2016. "Remittances and expenditure patterns of the left behinds in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 177-190.
    4. Lechner, Michael & Sari, Nazmi, 2015. "Labor market effects of sports and exercise: Evidence from Canadian panel data," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 1-15.
    5. Antonio De Vito & Martin Jacob & Dirk Schindler & Guosong Xu, 2023. "How Do Corporate Tax Hikes Affect Investment Allocation within Multinationals?," CESifo Working Paper Series 10272, CESifo.
    6. Alm Bastian & Engel Dirk & Weyh Antje, 2014. "Does Switching to a Western German Employer Still Pay Off?: An Analysis for Eastern Germany," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 234(5), pages 546-571, October.
    7. Michael C. Knaus, 2021. "A double machine learning approach to estimate the effects of musical practice on student’s skills," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 184(1), pages 282-300, January.
    8. Simone Bertoli & Francesca Marchetta, 2014. "Migration, Remittances and Poverty in Ecuador," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(8), pages 1067-1089, August.
    9. Callaway, Brantly & Karami, Sonia, 2023. "Treatment effects in interactive fixed effects models with a small number of time periods," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 233(1), pages 184-208.
    10. Gong, Xuche & Yuan, Yan, 2017. "The Effect of School Transfers on Academic and Non-academic Performance of Rural-to-Urban Migrant Children in China," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 259178, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    11. Alidou, Sahawal & Verpoorten, Marijke, 2019. "Only women can whisper to gods: Voodoo, menopause and women’s autonomy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 40-54.
    12. Carina Steckenleiter & Michael Lechner & Tim Pawlowski & Ute Schüttoff, 2023. "Do local expenditures on sports facilities affect sports participation?," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(4), pages 1103-1128, October.
    13. Eva Deuchert & Martin Huber, 2017. "A Cautionary Tale About Control Variables in IV Estimation," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 79(3), pages 411-425, June.
    14. Thi Hong Hanh Pham, 2022. "Shadow Economy and Poverty: What Causes What?," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 20(4), pages 861-891, December.
    15. Carolina Caetano & Brantly Callaway & Stroud Payne & Hugo Sant'Anna Rodrigues, 2022. "Difference in Differences with Time-Varying Covariates," Papers 2202.02903, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2024.
    16. Andreas Drichoutis & Rodolfo Nayga & Heather Rouse & Michael Thomsen, 2015. "Food environment and childhood obesity: the effect of dollar stores," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 1-13, December.
    17. Alfonso Flores‐Lagunes & Arturo Gonzalez & Todd Neumann, 2010. "Learning But Not Earning? The Impact Of Job Corps Training On Hispanic Youth," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 48(3), pages 651-667, July.
    18. Steckenleiter, Carina & Lechner, Michael & Pawlowski, Tim & Schüttoff, Ute, 2019. "Do local public expenditures on sports facilities affect sports participation in Germany?," Economics Working Paper Series 1905, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    19. Gueorgui Kambourov & Iourii Manovskii & Miana Plesca, 2020. "Occupational mobility and the returns to training," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(1), pages 174-211, February.
    20. Lars Thiel, 2015. "Leave the Drama on the Stage: The Effect of Cultural Participation on Health," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 767, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    21. Marchetta, Francesca & Sim, Sokcheng, 2021. "The effect of parental migration on the schooling of children left behind in rural Cambodia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    22. Sara Wong, 2017. "Minimum wage impacts on wages and hours worked of low-income workers in Ecuador," Working Papers PMMA 2017-14, PEP-PMMA.
    23. Anda DAVID & Audrey LENOEL, 2017. "International emigration and labour market outcomes of women staying behind: the case of Morocco," Working Paper f7f57256-7aaf-4dc5-9840-b, Agence française de développement.
    24. Andini, Corrado, 2014. "Fixed Exchange-Rate Policy and Real Wage Growth: Quasi-Experimental Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 8701, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    25. C. Kirabo Jackson, 2018. "Does School Spending Matter? The New Literature on an Old Question," NBER Working Papers 25368, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    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. 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.
    2. Michael Lechner & Ruth Miquel, 2010. "Identification of the effects of dynamic treatments by sequential conditional independence assumptions," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 111-137, August.
    3. Flores, Carlos A. & Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso, 2009. "Identification and Estimation of Causal Mechanisms and Net Effects of a Treatment under Unconfoundedness," IZA Discussion Papers 4237, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Michael Lechner & Ruth Miquel & Conny Wunsch, 2011. "Long‐Run Effects Of Public Sector Sponsored Training In West Germany," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 742-784, August.
    5. Carlos A. Flores & Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, 2007. "Identification and Estimation of Casual Mechanisms and Net Effects of a Treatment," Working Papers 0706, University of Miami, Department of Economics.
    6. Lechner Michael & Miquel Ruth & Wunsch Conny, 2007. "The Curse and Blessing of Training the Unemployed in a Changing Economy: The Case of East Germany After Unification," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 8(4), pages 468-509, December.
    7. Guido W. Imbens & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2009. "Recent Developments in the Econometrics of Program Evaluation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 5-86, March.
    8. Conny Wunsch & Michael Lechner, 2008. "What Did All the Money Do? On the General Ineffectiveness of Recent West German Labour Market Programmes," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(1), pages 134-174, February.
    9. Gevrek, Z. Eylem & Seiberlich, Ruben R., 2014. "Semiparametric decomposition of the gender achievement gap: An application for Turkey," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 27-44.
    10. Stephan, Gesine & Pahnke, André, 2008. "The Relative Effectiveness of Selected Active Labour Market Programmes and the Common Support Problem," IZA Discussion Papers 3767, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Lechner, Michael & Wunsch, Conny, 2013. "Sensitivity of matching-based program evaluations to the availability of control variables," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 111-121.
    12. James J. Heckman, 2008. "The Principles Underlying Evaluation Estimators with an Application to Matching," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 91-92, pages 9-73.
    13. Conny Wunsch, 2013. "Optimal Use of Labor Market Policies: The Role of Job Search Assistance," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(3), pages 1030-1045, July.
    14. Rainer Eppel & Helmut Mahringer, 2012. "Do wage subsidies work in boosting economic inclusion? Evidence on e," EcoMod2012 4065, EcoMod.
    15. Flores-Lagunes, Alfonso & Gonzalez, Arturo & Neumann, Todd C., 2007. "Estimating the Effects of Length of Exposure to a Training Program: The Case of Job Corps," IZA Discussion Papers 2846, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Michael Lechner & Markus Froelich, 2010. "Combining Matching and Nonparametric IV Estimation: Theory and an Application to the Evaluation of Active Labour Market Policies," University of St. Gallen Department of Economics working paper series 2010 2010-21, Department of Economics, University of St. Gallen.
    17. Dettmann, E. & Becker, C. & Schmeißer, C., 2011. "Distance functions for matching in small samples," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 55(5), pages 1942-1960, May.
    18. Chung Choe & Alfonso Flores-Lagunes & Sang-Jun Lee, 2015. "Do dropouts with longer training exposure benefit from training programs? Korean evidence employing methods for continuous treatments," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 849-881, March.
    19. repec:bla:germec:v:8:y:2007:i::p:468-509 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Seamus McGuinness & Philip J. O’Connell & Elish Kelly, 2019. "Carrots, No Stick, No Driver: The Employment Impact of Job Search Assistance in a Regime with Minimal Monitoring and Sanctions," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 151-180, June.
    21. Shaikh, Azeem M. & Simonsen, Marianne & Vytlacil, Edward J. & Yildiz, Nese, 2009. "A specification test for the propensity score using its distribution conditional on participation," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 151(1), pages 33-46, July.

    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:eee:stapro:v:78:y:2008:i:2:p:190-195. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/622892/description#description .

    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.