Marginal Treatment Effects from a Propensity Score Perspective

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Zhou, Xiang; Xie, Yu
• 署名单位: Harvard University; Princeton University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/702172
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 3070-3084
• 关键词: local instrumental variables; models; returns; selection

摘要

We offer a propensity score perspective to interpret and analyze the marginal treatment effect (MTE). Specifically, we redefine MTE as the expected treatment effect conditional on the propensity score and a latent variable representing unobserved resistance to treatment. As with the original MTE, the redefined MTE can be used as a building block for constructing standard causal estimands. The weights associated with the new MTE, however, are simpler, more intuitive, and easier to compute. Moreover, the redefined MTE immediately reveals treatment effect heterogeneity among individuals at the margin of treatment, enabling us to evaluate a wide range of policy effects.