Date/Time
Date(s) - 12/07/2024
12:30 pm

Stefan Sperlich, professor of statistics and econometrics at the Université de Genève, will present to our economics graduate students and faculty on Wednesday, July 12th, 2023 at 12:30 pm (EST) in KTH 334.

Stefan will present the paper “A Complete Framework for Model-Free Difference-in-Differences Estimation“.

Abstract

In our paper we propose a complete framework for model-free difference-in-differences analysis with covariates, where model-free means data-driven, in particular nonparametric estimation and testing, variable and scale choice. We start with searching for the preferred data setup by simultaneously choosing confounders and a scale of the outcome variable along identification conditions. The treatment effects themselves are estimated in two steps: first, the heterogeneous effects stratified along the covariates, then the average treatment effect(s) for the population(s) of interest. We provide the asymptotic statistics as well as the finite sample behaviour of our methods, and suggest bootstrap procedures to calculate standard errors and p-values of significance tests. The pertinence of our methods is shown with a study of the impact of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program on human capital responses of non-citizen immigrants.

View Stefan Sperlich professional website.