Date:
Location:
This Week's Speaker
Zeyang Yu (Princeton), "A Binary IV Model for Persuasion: Profiling Persuasion Types among Compliers"
Abstract
In the empirical study of persuasion, researchers often use a binary instrument to encourage individuals to consume information and take some action. We show that with the Imbens-Angrist instrumental variable model assumptions and the monotone treatment response assumption, it is possible to identify the joint distributions of potential outcomes among compliers. This is necessary to identify the percentage of persuaded individuals and their statistical characteristics. Specifically, we develop a weighting method that helps researchers identify the statistical characteristics of persuasion types: compliers and always-persuaded, compliers and persuaded, and compliers and never-persuaded. These findings extend the ”κ weighting” results in Abadie (2003). We also provide a sharp test on the two sets of identification assumptions. The test boils down to testing whether there exists a nonnegative solution to a possibly under-determined system of linear equations with known coefficients. An application based on Green et al. (2003) is provided. The result shows that among compliers, roughly 10% voters are persuaded. The results are consistent with the findings that voters’ voting behaviors are highly persistent.
The Applied Statistics Workshop (Gov 3009) meets all academic year, Wednesdays, 12pm-1:30pm, in CGIS K354. This workshop is a forum for advanced graduate students, faculty, and visiting scholars to present and discuss methodological or empirical work in progress in an interdisciplinary setting. The workshop features a tour of Harvard's statistical innovations and applications with weekly stops in different fields and disciplines and includes occasional presentations by invited speakers.
More information is available at the Gov 3009 website: https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/applied.stats.workshop-gov3009
All interested Harvard affiliates are invited to attend.