{"title":"Standard Errors for Regression-Based Causal Effect Estimates in Economics Using Numerical Derivatives","authors":"","doi":"10.1007/s10614-024-10565-w","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<h3>Abstract</h3> <p>The aim of nearly all empirical studies in economics is to provide scientific evidence that can be used to assess policy relevant cause-and-effect. In the context of the general potential outcomes framework, we review how a causal effect parameter can be rigorously but tractably specified, identified and estimated along with its asymptotic standard error. For cases in which the analytic and computational requirements for calculation of the ASE are challenging, we suggest the use of numerical derivatives (ND). We detail the specific type of ND software required for this purpose, and note that it is offered as a feature in most statistical packages. As an illustration, we analyze the causal effect of wife's high school graduation on family size using the Stata/Mata <strong>deriv</strong> command. Code for this example is supplied in an appendix.</p>","PeriodicalId":50647,"journal":{"name":"Computational Economics","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Computational Economics","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10614-024-10565-w","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The aim of nearly all empirical studies in economics is to provide scientific evidence that can be used to assess policy relevant cause-and-effect. In the context of the general potential outcomes framework, we review how a causal effect parameter can be rigorously but tractably specified, identified and estimated along with its asymptotic standard error. For cases in which the analytic and computational requirements for calculation of the ASE are challenging, we suggest the use of numerical derivatives (ND). We detail the specific type of ND software required for this purpose, and note that it is offered as a feature in most statistical packages. As an illustration, we analyze the causal effect of wife's high school graduation on family size using the Stata/Mata deriv command. Code for this example is supplied in an appendix.
期刊介绍：
Computational Economics, the official journal of the Society for Computational Economics, presents new research in a rapidly growing multidisciplinary field that uses advanced computing capabilities to understand and solve complex problems from all branches in economics. The topics of Computational Economics include computational methods in econometrics like filtering, bayesian and non-parametric approaches, markov processes and monte carlo simulation; agent based methods, machine learning, evolutionary algorithms, (neural) network modeling; computational aspects of dynamic systems, optimization, optimal control, games, equilibrium modeling; hardware and software developments, modeling languages, interfaces, symbolic processing, distributed and parallel processing
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