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27 October 2006

Potential outcomes and equilibrium analysis

Mike Kellermann

Here's a question (alright, a bleg) for any economist-types out there: can you recommend any articles or books that integrate the potential outcomes framework for causal inference with the type of equilibrium analysis that is usually used in microeconomic modeling? I'm not exactly looking for cases where someone says "my comparative statics say the effect should be positive and, voila, it is!", but rather an applied article in which the potential outcomes arise naturally from the structure of the model. Or, even better, something more philosophical that attempts to integrate the potential outcomes approach with equilibriumist models of behavior. A quick Google Scholar search on "potential outcomes", "causal inference", and "equilibrium" only bring up about 80 hits, many of which appear to be by James Heckman, so any pointers to more sympathetic treatments would be appreciated!

Posted by Mike Kellermann at 10:30 AM