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Instrumental variables estimation with flexible distribution

Author

Listed:
  • Christian Hansen

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies and Chicago GSB)

  • James B. McDonald

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies)

  • Whitney K. Newey

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies and MIT)

Abstract

Instrumental variables are often associated with low estimator precision. This paper explores efficiency gains which might be achievable using moment conditions which are nonlinear in the disturbances and are based on flexible parametric families for error distributions. We show that these estimators can achieve the semiparametric efficiency bound when the true error distribution is a member of the parametric family. Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate low efficiency loss in the case of normal error distributions and potentially significant efficiency improvements in the case of thick-tailed and/or skewed error distributions.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Hansen & James B. McDonald & Whitney K. Newey, 2007. "Instrumental variables estimation with flexible distribution," CeMMAP working papers CWP21/07, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:ifs:cemmap:21/07
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    File URL: http://cemmap.ifs.org.uk/wps/cwp2107.pdf
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