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rdhte: Conditional Average Treatment Effects in RD Designs

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Listed:
  • Sebastian Calonico
  • Matias D. Cattaneo
  • Max H. Farrell
  • Filippo Palomba
  • Rocio Titiunik

Abstract

Understanding causal heterogeneous treatment effects based on pretreatment covariates is a crucial aspect of empirical work. Building on Calonico, Cattaneo, Farrell, Palomba, and Titiunik (2025), this article discusses the software package rdhte for estimation and inference of heterogeneous treatment effects in sharp regression discontinuity (RD) designs. The package includes three main commands: rdhte conducts estimation and robust bias-corrected inference for heterogeneous RD treatment effects, for a given choice of the bandwidth parameter; rdbwhte implements automatic bandwidth selection methods; and rdhte lincom computes point estimates and robust bias-corrected confidence intervals for linear combinations, a post-estimation command specifically tailored to rdhte. We also provide an overview of heterogeneous effects for sharp RD designs, give basic details on the methodology, and illustrate using an empirical application. Finally, we discuss how the package rdhte complements, and in specific cases recovers, the canonical RD package rdrobust (Calonico, Cattaneo, Farrell, and Titiunik 2017).

Suggested Citation

  • Sebastian Calonico & Matias D. Cattaneo & Max H. Farrell & Filippo Palomba & Rocio Titiunik, 2025. "rdhte: Conditional Average Treatment Effects in RD Designs," Papers 2507.01128, arXiv.org.
  • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2507.01128
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sebastian Calonico & Matias D. Cattaneo & Max H. Farrell, 2018. "On the Effect of Bias Estimation on Coverage Accuracy in Nonparametric Inference," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 113(522), pages 767-779, April.
    2. Yoichi Arai & Hidehiko Ichimura, 2018. "Simultaneous selection of optimal bandwidths for the sharp regression discontinuity estimator," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 9(1), pages 441-482, March.
    3. Riako Granzier & Vincent Pons & Clemence Tricaud, 2023. "Coordination and Bandwagon Effects: How Past Rankings Shape the Behavior of Voters and Candidates," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 177-217, October.
    4. Ari Hyytinen & Jaakko Meriläinen & Tuukka Saarimaa & Otto Toivanen & Janne Tukiainen, 2018. "When does regression discontinuity design work? Evidence from random election outcomes," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 9(2), pages 1019-1051, July.
    5. Sebastian Calonico & Matias D. Cattaneo & Rocio Titiunik, 2014. "Robust Nonparametric Confidence Intervals for Regression‐Discontinuity Designs," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82, pages 2295-2326, November.
    6. Sebastian Calonico & Matias D. Cattaneo & Max H. Farrell & Roc ́ıo Titiunik, 2017. "rdrobust: Software for regression-discontinuity designs," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 17(2), pages 372-404, June.
    7. Matias D. Cattaneo & Rocío Titiunik, 2022. "Regression Discontinuity Designs," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 821-851, August.
    8. Matias D. Cattaneo & Luke Keele & Rocio Titiunik, 2021. "Covariate Adjustment in Regression Discontinuity Designs," Papers 2110.08410, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2022.
    9. Hsu, Yu-Chin & Shen, Shu, 2019. "Testing treatment effect heterogeneity in regression discontinuity designs," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 208(2), pages 468-486.
    10. Veronica Grembi & Tommaso Nannicini & Ugo Troiano, 2016. "Do Fiscal Rules Matter?," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(3), pages 1-30, July.
    11. Matias D. Cattaneo & Rocío Titiunik & Gonzalo Vazquez-Bare, 2020. "Analysis of regression-discontinuity designs with multiple cutoffs or multiple scores," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 20(4), pages 866-891, December.
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