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Nonparametric analysis of treatment effects in ordered response models

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Abstract

Treatment analyses based on average outcomes do not immediately generalize to the case of ordered responses because the expectation of an ordinally measured variable does not exist. The proposed remedy in this paper is a shift in focus to distributional effects. Assuming a threshold crossing model on both the ordered potential outcomes and the binary treatment variable, and leaving the distribution of error terms and functional forms unspecified, the paper discusses how the treatment effects can be bounded. The construction of bounds is illustrated in a simulated data example.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Socioeconomic Institute, University of Zurich, Zuerichbergstrasse 14, 8032, Zurich, Switzerland

    Stefan Boes

  2. Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    Stefan Boes

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  1. Stefan Boes
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Correspondence to Stefan Boes.

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Boes, S. Nonparametric analysis of treatment effects in ordered response models. Empir Econ 44, 81–109 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00181-010-0354-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00181-010-0354-y

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