Skip navigation
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01t148fk62z
Title: The Devil is in the Tails: Regression Discontinuity Design with Measurement Error in the Assignment Variable
Authors: Pei, Zhuan
Shen, Yi
Keywords: JEL: C10, C18
Regression Discontinuity Design, Measurement Error
Issue Date: Oct-2016
Series/Report no.: 606
Abstract: Identification in a regression discontinuity (RD) design hinges on the discontinuity in the probability of treatment when a covariate (assignment variable) exceeds a known threshold. If the assignment variable is measured with error, however, the discontinuity in the first stage relationship between the probability of treatment and the observed mismeasured assignment variable may disappear. Therefore, the presence of measurement error in the assignment variable poses a challenge to treatment effect identification. This paper provides sufficient conditions for identification when only the mismeasured assignment variable, the treatment status and the outcome variable are observed. We prove identification separately for discrete and continuous assignment variables and study the properties of various estimation procedures. We illustrate the proposed methods in an empirical application, where we estimate Medicaid takeup and its crowdout effect on private health insurance coverage.
URI: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01t148fk62z
Appears in Collections:IRS Working Papers

Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormat 
606.pdf995.46 kBAdobe PDFView/Download


Items in Dataspace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.