We congratulate Kang and Schafer (KS) on their excellent article comparing various estimators of a population mean in the presence of missing data, and thank the Editor for organizing the discussion. In this communication, we systematically examine the propensity score (PS) and the outcome regression (OR) approaches and doubly robust (DR) estimation, which are all discussed by KS. The aim is to...

Propensity score matching and weighting are popular methods when estimating causal effects in observational studies. Beyond the assumption of unconfoundedness, however, these methods also require the model for the propensity score to be correctly specified. The recently proposed covariate balancing propensity score (CBPS) methodology increases the robustness to model misspecification by directl...

Propensity score applications are often used to evaluate educational program impact. However, various options are available to estimate both propensity scores and construct comparison groups. This study used a student achievement dataset with commonly available covariates to compare different propensity scoring estimation methods (logistic regression, boosted regression, and Bayesian logistic r...

This study considers variance estimation when estimating the asymptotic variance of a propensity score matching estimator for the average treatment effect. We investigate the role of smoothing parameters in a variance estimator based on matching. We also study the properties of estimators using local linear estimation. Simulations demonstrate that large gains can be made in terms of mean square...

Using a simulation design that is based on empirical data, a recent study by Huber, Lechner and Wunsch (2013) finds that distance-weighted radius matching with bias adjustment as proposed in Lechner, Miquel and Wunsch (2011) is competitive among a broad range of propensity score-based estimators used to correct for mean differences due to observable covariates. In this companion paper, we furth...

In large observational studies there are often significant differences between characteristics of a treatment group and a no treatment group. Such differences should not exist in a randomized trial. These differences must be adjusted for in order to reduce treatment selection bias and determine treatment effect. There are several methods to reduce the bias of these differences and make the two ...

Nutritional labeling has been of much interest to policy makers and health advocates due to rising obesity trends. So can nutritional label use really help reduce body weight outcomes? This study evaluates the impact of nutritional label use on body weight using the propensity score matching technique. We conducted a series of tests related to variable choice of the propensity score specificati...

The propensity score is a common tool for estimating the causal effect of a binary treatment using observational data. In this setting, matched methods, defined as either individual matching, subclassifying, or using inverse probability weighting on the propensity score, can reduce the initial covariate bias between the treatment and control groups. With more than two treatment options, however...

A recent survey of 54 micro-econometric studies reveals that exporting firms are more productive than non-exporters. On the other hand, previous empirical studies show that exporting does not necessarily improve productivity. One possible reason for this result is that most previous studies are restricted to analysing the relationship between a firm’s export status and the growth of its labour ...