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  5. Group-Average Observables as Controls for Sorting on Unobservables When Estimating Group Treatment Effects: The Case of School and Neighborhood Effects

Group-Average Observables as Controls for Sorting on Unobservables When Estimating Group Treatment Effects: The Case of School and Neighborhood Effects

File(s)
Mansfield9_Group_average_observables_as_controls.pdf (340.31 KB)
Permanent Link(s)
https://hdl.handle.net/1813/74772
Collections
ILR Working Papers
Author
Altonji, Joseph G.
Mansfield, Richard K.
Abstract

We consider the classic problem of estimating group treatment effects when individuals sort based on observed and unobserved characteristics. Using a standard choice model, we show that controlling for group averages of observed individual characteristics potentially absorbs all the across-group variation in unobservable individual characteristics. We use this insight to bound the treatment effect variance of school systems and associated neighborhoods for various outcomes. Across four datasets, our conservative estimates indicate that a 90th versus 10th percentile school system increases high school graduation and college enrollment probabilities by at least 0.047 and 0.11. Other applications include measurement of teacher value-added.

Date Issued
2014-12-16
Keywords
observables
•
unobservables
•
treatment effects
Rights
Required Publisher Statement: Copyright held by the authors.
Type
article

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