Minimizing Bias in Selection on Observables Estimators When Unconfoundness Fails We characterize the bias of propensity score based estimators of common average treatment effect parameters in the case of selection on unobservables. We then propose a new minimum biased estimator of the average treatment effect. We assess the finite sample performance of our estimator using simulated data, as wel...

This paper surveys the empirical evidence on causal effects of educatio studies in the light of their underlying identifying assumptions. We work o which lead to rather different interpretations of the estimated causal effect extend causal return estimates are informative regarding educational policy Despite the substantial methodological differences, we have to conclude t and do not deviate su...

This paper proposes a fully nonparametric procedure to evaluate the effect of a counterfactual change in the distribution of some covariates on the unconditional distribution of an outcome variable of interest. In contrast to other methods, we do not restrict attention to the effect on the mean. In particular, our method can be used to conduct inference on the change of the distribution functio...

Currently available asymptotic results in the literature suggest that matching estimators have higher variance than reweighting estimators. The extant literature comparing the finite sample properties of matching to specific reweighting estimators, however, has concluded that reweighting performs far worse than even the simplest matching estimator. We resolve these puzzling conclusions. Specifi...

EU enlargement is supposed to entail profound impact on the location of economic activities in Europe. Although there is concern about the implications of enlargement for regional disparities in the EU, corresponding empirical results are still rare. The objective of this analysis is to provide empirical evidence on enlargement effects with a special focus on border regions in the EU27 since th...

Losers and Losers: Some Demographics of Medical Malpractice Tort Reforms Our research examines individual differences in the effects of medical malpractice tort reforms on pre-trial settlement speed and settlement amounts by age and most likely settlement size. Findings of note include that, unlike previously assumed, both absolute and percentage losses from tort reform are small for infants in...

This paper uses control variables to identify and estimate models with nonseparable, multidimensional disturbances. Triangular simultaneous equations models are considered, with instruments and disturbances independent and reduced form that is strictly monotonic in a scalar disturbance. Here it is shown that the conditional cumulative distribution function of the endogenous variable given the i...

From Micro Data to Causality: Forty Years of Empirical Labor Economics This overview describes the development of methods for empirical research in the field of labor economics during the past four decades. This period is characterized by the use of micro data to answer policy relevant research question. Prominent in the literature is the search for exogenous variation in treatment assignment w...

abstract i n this paper, we investigate the existence and the nature of real exchange rate misalignment in organization of the petroleum exporting countries (opec). to do this we estimated a cross country basic real exchange rate determination model for 1990-2012 and extracted historic trend of misalignment. the results imply that all opec countries have had misalignment -of different kinds tho...

Using a sample of male and female workers from the 1992 Employment in Britain survey we estimate a generalised grouped zero-inflated Poisson regression model of employees’ selfreported lateness. Reflecting theoretical predictions from both psychology and economics, lateness is modelled as a function of incentives, the monitoring of and sanctions for lateness within the workplace, job satisfacti...