The rapid expansion of microcredit in recent years renders knowledge of its impact on poverty critical. Unfortunately, empirical investigations have been limited by endogeneity issues. This paper suggests a strategy for handling the endogeneity of microcredit borrowing without specifying instrumental variables, allowing for estimation using observational data. The model is identified by an assu...

PROVIDER COMMUNICATION FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF HOUSEHOLDS LIVING IN HIGH AND LOW INCOME DISTRICTS OF MASHHAD Somayeh Fazaeli, Mehdi Yousefi, Zahra-Sadat Ershadnia, Saeed Fazaeli. Medical Records and Health Information Technology Department, school of paramedical sciences, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran; Department of Health Economics and Management Sciences, School of Hea...

This paper analyzes conditions under which various single-equation estimators are asymptotically normal in a simultaneous equations framework with many weak instruments. In particular, our paper adds to the many instruments asymptotic normality literature, including papers by Morimune (1983), Bekker (1994), Angrist and Krueger (1995), Donald and Newey (2001), Hahn, Hausman, and Kuersteiner (200...

This article presents a political-economy analysis of allowance allocation in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). A common-agency model suggests that a politicalsupport maximizing government considers the preferences of sectoral interest groups besides public interest when allocating emissions permits. In the stylized model, industries represented by more powerful lobby groups face a lowe...

Recent developments in the econometric estimation of multi-output, multi-input distance functions have provided a promising new solution to the single-output restriction implicit in the standard production function. However, a suspicion that regressor endogeneity may introduce possible simultaneous equations bias has concerned some econometricians. In this paper we show that, under profit maxim...

College Education and Wages in the U.K.: Estimating Conditional Average Structural Functions in Nonadditive Models with Binary Endogenous Variables We propose and implement an estimator for identifiable features of correlated random coefficient models with binary endogenous variables and nonadditive errors in the outcome equation. It is suitable, e.g., for estimation of the average returns to c...

We analyze trading opportunities that arise from differences between the bond and the CDS market. By simultaneously entering a position in a CDS contract and the underlying bond, traders can build a default-risk free position that allows them to repeatedly earn the difference between the bond asset swap spread and the CDS, known as the basis. We show that the basis size is closely related to me...

Post-Secondary Education in Canada: Can Ability Bias Explain the Earnings Gap Between College and University Graduates? Using the Canadian General Social Survey we compute returns to post-secondary education relative to high-school. Unlike previous research using Canadian data, our dataset allows us to control for ability selection into higher education. We find strong evidence of positive abil...

In this paper, we use the instrumental quantile regression approach developed in Chernozhukov and Hansen (2001) to examine the effects of 401(k) plans on wealth using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation. Using 401(k) eligibility as an instrument for 401(k) participation, we estimate the quantile treatment effects of participation in a 401(k) plan on several measures of weal...

College Education and Wages in the U.K.: Estimating Conditional Average Structural Functions in Nonadditive Models with Binary Endogenous Variables We propose and implement an estimator for identifiable features of correlated random coefficient models with binary endogenous variables and nonadditive errors in the outcome equation. It is suitable, e.g., for estimation of the average returns to c...