Federico A. Bugni

Bootstrap Inference in Partially Identified Models Defined by Moment Inequalities: Coverage of the Identified Set

This paper introduces a novel bootstrap procedure to perform inference in a wide class of partially identified econometric models. We consider econometric models defined by finitely many weak moment inequalities, -super-2 which encompass many applications of economic interest. The objective of our inferential procedure is to cover the identified set with a prespecified probability. -super-3 We compare our bootstrap procedure, a competing asymptotic approximation, and subsampling procedures in terms of the rate at which they achieve the desired coverage level, also known as the error in the coverage probability. Under certain conditions, we show that our bootstrap procedure and the asymptotic approximation have the same order of error in the coverage probability, which is smaller than that obtained by using subsampling. This implies that inference based on our bootstrap and asymptotic approximation should eventually be more precise than inference based on subsampling. A Monte Carlo study confirms this finding in a small sample simulation. Copyright 2010 The Econometric Society.

Goodness-of-Fit Tests for Functional Data

Economic data are frequently generated by stochastic processes that can be modelled as occurring in continuous time. That is, the data are treated as realizations of a random function (functional data). Sometimes an economic theory model specifies the process up to a finite-dimensional parameter. This paper develops a test of the null hypothesis that a given functional data set was generated by a specified parametric model of a continuous-time process. The alternative hypothesis is non-parametric. A random function is a form of infinite-dimensional random variable, and the test presented here a generalization of the familiar Cramer-von Mises test to an infinite dimensional random variable. The test is illustrated by using it to test the hypothesis that a sample of wage paths was generated by a certain equilibrium job search model. Simulation studies show that the test has good finite-sample performance. Copyright (C) The Author(s). Journal compilation (C) Royal Economic Society 2009

Distortions of Asymptotic Confidence Size in Locally Misspecified Moment Inequality Models

This paper studies the behavior, under local misspecification, of several confidence sets (CSs) commonly used in the literature on inference in moment (in)equality models. We propose the amount of asymptotic confidence size distortion as a criterion to choose among competing inference methods. This criterion is then applied to compare across test statistics and critical values employed in the construction of CSs. We find two important results under weak assumptions. First, we show that CSs based on subsampling and generalized moment selection (Andrews and Soares (2010)) suffer from the same degree of asymptotic confidence size distortion, despite the fact that asymptotically the latter can lead to CSs with strictly smaller expected volume under correct model specification. Second, we show that the asymptotic confidence size of CSs based on the quasi-likelihood ratio test statistic can be an arbitrary small fraction of the asymptotic confidence size of CSs based on the modified method of moments test statistic.

Inference for subvectors and other functions of partially identified parameters in moment inequality models

This paper introduces a bootstrap-based inference method for functions of the parameter vector in a moment (in)equality model. These functions are restricted to be linear for two-sided testing problems, but may be non-linear for one-sided testing problems. In the most common case, this function selects a subvector of the parameter, such as a single component. The new inference method we propose controls asymptotic size uniformly over a large class of data distributions and improves upon the two existing methods that deliver uniform size control for this type of problem: projection-based and subsampling inference. Relative to projection-based procedures, our method presents three advantages: (i) it weakly dominates in terms of nite sample power, (ii) it strictly dominates in terms of asymptotic power, and (iii) it is typically less computationally demanding. Relative to subsampling, our method presents two advantages: (i) it strictly dominates in terms of asymptotic power (for reasonable choices of subsample size), and (ii) it appears to be less sensitive to the choice of its tuning parameter than subsampling is to the choice of subsample size.

COMPARISON OF INFERENTIAL METHODS IN PARTIALLY IDENTIFIED MODELS IN TERMS OF ERROR IN COVERAGE PROBABILITY

This paper considers the problem of coverage of the elements of the identified set in a class of partially identified econometric models with a prespecified probability. In order to conduct inference in partially identified econometric models defined by moment (in)equalities, the literature has proposed three methods: the bootstrap, subsampling, and an asymptotic approximation. The objective of this paper is to compare these methods in terms of the rate at which they achieve the desired coverage level, i.e., in terms of the rate at which the error in the coverage probability (ECP) converges to zero.Under certain conditions, we show that the ECP of the bootstrap and the ECP of the asymptotic approximation converge to zero at the same rate, which is a faster rate than the rate of the ECP of subsampling methods. As a consequence, under these conditions, the bootstrap and the asymptotic approximation produce inference that is more precise than subsampling. A Monte Carlo simulation study confirms that these results are relevant in nite samples.

Specification Test for Missing Functional Data

Economic data are frequently generated by stochastic processes that can be modeled as realizations of random functions (functional data). This paper adapts the specification test for functional data developed by Bugni, Hall, Horowitz and Neumann (2008) to the presence of missing observations. By using a worst case scenario approach, our method is able to extract the information available in the observed portion of the data while being agnostic about the nature of the missing observations. The presence of missing data implies that our test will not only result in the rejection or lack of rejection of the null hypothesis, but it may also be inconclusive. Under the null hypothesis, our specification test will reject the null hypothesis with a probability that, in the limit, does not exceed the significance level of the test. Moreover, the power of the test converges to one whenever the distribution of the observations conveys that the null hypothesis is false. Monte Carlo evidence shows that the test may produce informative results (either rejection or lack of rejection of the null hypothesis) even under the presence of significant amounts of missing data. The procedure is illustrated by testing whether the Burdett-Mortensen labor market model is the correct framework for wage paths constructed from the NLSY79 survey.

Inference under covariate-adaptive randomization with multiple treatments

This paper studies inference in randomized controlled trials with covariate-adaptive randomization when there are multiple treatments. More specifically, we study inference about the average effect of one or more treatments relative to other treatments or a control. As in Bugni et al. (2018), covariate-adaptive randomization refers to randomization schemes that first stratify according to baseline covariates and then assign treatment status so as to achieve balance within each stratum. In contrast to Bugni et al. (2018), we not only allow for multiple treatments, but further allow for the proportion of units being assigned to each of the treatments to vary across strata. We first study the properties of estimators derived from a fully saturated linear regression, i.e., a linear regression of the outcome on all interactions between indicators for each of the treatments and indicators for each of the strata. We show that tests based on these estimators using the usual heteroskedasticity-consistent estimator of the asymptotic variance are invalid; on the other hand, tests based on these estimators and suitable estimators of the asymptotic variance that we provide are exact. For the special case in which the target proportion of units being assigned to each of the treatments does not vary across strata, we additionally consider tests based on estimators derived from a linear regression with strata fixed effects, i.e., a linear regression of the outcome on indicators for each of the treatments and indicators for each of the strata. We show that tests based on these estimators using the usual heteroskedasticity-consistent estimator of the asymptotic variance are conservative, but tests based on these estimators and suitable estimators of the asymptotic variance that we provide are exact. A simulation study illustrates the practical relevance of our theoretical results.

On the iterated estimation of dynamic discrete choice games

We study the asymptotic properties of a class of estimators of the structural parameters in dynamic discrete choice games. We consider K-stage policy iteration (PI) estimators, where K denotes the number of policy iterations employed in the estimation. This class nests several estimators proposed in the literature such as those in Aguirregabiria and Mira (2002, 2007), Pesendorfer and Schmidt-Dengler (2008), and Pakes et al. (2007). First, we establish that the K-PML estimator is consistent and asymptotically normal for all K. This complements findings in Aguirregabiria and Mira (2007), who focus on K=1 and K large enough to induce convergence of the estimator. Furthermore, we show under certain conditions that the asymptotic variance of the K-PML estimator can exhibit arbitrary patterns as a function of K. Second, we establish that the K-MD estimator is consistent and asymptotically normal for all K. For a specific weight matrix, the K-MD estimator has the same asymptotic distribution as the K-PML estimator. Our main result provides an optimal sequence of weight matrices for the K-MD estimator and shows that the optimally weighted K-MD estimator has an asymptotic distribution that is invariant to K. The invariance result is especially unexpected given the findings in Aguirregabiria and Mira (2007) for K-PML estimators. Our main result implies two new corollaries about the optimal 1-MD estimator (derived by Pesendorfer and Schmidt-Dengler (2008)). First, the optimal 1-MD estimator is optimal in the class of K-MD estimators. In other words, additional policy iterations do not provide asymptotic efficiency gains relative to the optimal 1-MD estimator. Second, the optimal 1-MD estimator is more or equally asymptotically efficient than any K-PML estimator for all K. Finally, the appendix provides appropriate conditions under which the optimal 1-MD estimator is asymptotically efficient.

Testing continuity of a density via g -order statistics in the regression discontinuity design

In the regression discontinuity design (RDD), it is common practice to assess the credibility of the design by testing the continuity of the density of the running variable at the cut-off, e.g., McCrary (2008). In this paper we propose an approximate sign test for continuity of a density at a point based on the so-called g-order statistics, and study its properties under two complementary asymptotic frameworks. In the first asymptotic framework, the number q of observations local to the cut-off is fixed as the sample size n diverges to infinity, while in the second framework q diverges to infinity slowly as n diverges to infinity. Under both of these frameworks, we show that the test we propose is asymptotically valid in the sense that it has limiting rejection probability under the null hypothesis not exceeding the nominal level. More importantly, the test is easy to implement, asymptotically valid under weaker conditions than those used by competing methods, and exhibits finite sample validity under stronger conditions than those needed for its asymptotic validity. In a simulation study, we find that the approximate sign test provides good control of the rejection probability under the null hypothesis while remaining competitive under the alternative hypothesis. We finally apply our test to the design in Lee (2008), a well-known application of the RDD to study incumbency advantage.

IDENTIFICATION AND INFERENCE ON REGRESSIONS WITH MISSING COVARIATE DATA

This paper examines the problem of identification and inference on a conditional moment condition model with missing data, with special focus on the case when the conditioning covariates are missing. We impose no assumption on the distribution of the missing data and we confront the missing data problem by using a worst case scenario approach. We characterize the sharp identified set and argue that this set is usually too complex to compute or to use for inference. Given this difficulty, we consider the construction of outer identified sets (i.e. supersets of the identified set) that are easier to compute and can still characterize the parameter of interest. Two different outer identification strategies are proposed. Both of these strategies are shown to have non-trivial identifying power and are relatively easy to use and combine for inferential purposes.