This paper analyzes the link between individual heterogeneity, program risk, and outcome inequality within the potential outcome framework. Using standard ignorability conditions we derive identifying conditions for the variance of the treatment effect, i.e. the program risk, and relate this parameter to the variance treatment effect. Moreover, for a rather general set-up allowing for binary as...

Exploiting Regional Treatment Intensity for the Evaluation of Labour Market Policies We estimate the effects of active labour market policies (ALMP) on subsequent employment by nonparametric instrumental variables and matching estimators. Very informative administrative Swiss data with detailed regional information are combined with exogenous regional variation in programme participation probab...

Leaving Poverty Behind? The Effects of Generous Income Support Paired with Activation We evaluate a comprehensive activation program in Norway targeted at hard-to-employ social assistance claimants with reduced work capacity. The program offers a combination of tailored rehabilitation, training and job practice, and a generous, stable, and non-meanstested benefit. Its main aims are to mitigate ...

In this paper we discuss the properties of confidence intervals for regression parameters based on robust standard errors. We discuss the motivation for a modification suggested by Bell and McCaffrey (2002) to improve the finite sample properties of the confidence intervals based on the conventional robust standard errors. We show that the Bell-McCaffrey modification is a natural extension of a...

This study aimed at examining the merit of crop diversification as a strategy for agricultural growth in Bangladesh. Specifically, the existence of economies of diversification, scale economies and diversification efficiencies at the farm level were examined using a stochastic input-distance function approach. Results reveal strong evidence of diversification economies amongst most crop enterpr...

This paper extends Brock and Durlauf’s models on binary choice with social interactions. In the extended model, an individual will form expected behaviors of peers taking into account their characteristics. The expected behaviors of peers in a group are heterogeneous. The expectations of peers are determined as rational expectations. We consider models in both group and network settings. Endoge...

This paper studies firms’ demand for money by developing a differential-cash-constraint framework with firms’ entire wage bills requiring cash in advance and a fraction of investment purchases being financed by credits. In addition to conventional scale and opportunity-cost factors, firms’ financial status and profitability are crucial determinants for their money demand behavior. Employing a n...

Statistical disclosure limitation is widely used by data collecting institutions to provide safe individual data. However, the choice of the disclosure limitation method severely affects the quality of the data. In particular, estimators for nonlinear models based on data which are masked by standard disclosure limitation techniques such as blanking or noise addition lead to inconsistent parame...

Many empirical questions in economics and other social sciences depend on causal effects of programs or policies. In the last two decades much research has been done on the econometric and statistical analysis of the effects of such programs or treatments. This recent theoretical literature has built on, and combined features of, earlier work in both the statistics and econometrics literatures....

Admission Conditions and Graduates’ Employability We evaluate the information content of admission conditions for study programs’ quality by investigating its relationship with graduates’ employability. We find that study programs with larger numeri clausi are associated with a higher probability of finding a job. Additionally, compulsory admission exams seem to be informative about study progr...