IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/evarev/v7y1983i6p807-830.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Use of Synthetic Data in Dealing With Self-Selection

Author

Listed:
  • Eric Hirst

    (Energy Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

  • John Trimble

    (Energy Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

  • Richard Goeltz

    (Energy Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

  • N. Scott Cardell

    (Energy Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

Abstract

Because energy conservation programs are generally voluntary , participating households are different from nonparticipants in important, energy-related ways. This self-selection bias complicates efforts to estimate energy savings due to these programs. This article discusses several methods for dealing with self-selection. The choices include nonrandom sampling of program nonparticipants , binary choice models that explicitly treat house hold decisions to participate and to retrofit, or use of both methods. Because some of the methods discussed are new and have not yet been applied to analysis of energy conserva tion programs, we developed a "synthetic "data set. We conducted numerical experiments with this data to examine the performance of these different methods. These experiments show that the improved sample design and analytical techniques generally yield more accurate estimates of program energy savings. Our experience also suggests that a small , well-defined synthetic data set is helpful in developing , debugging , and evaluating soft ware associated with new analytical approaches .

Suggested Citation

  • Eric Hirst & John Trimble & Richard Goeltz & N. Scott Cardell, 1983. "Use of Synthetic Data in Dealing With Self-Selection," Evaluation Review, , vol. 7(6), pages 807-830, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:evarev:v:7:y:1983:i:6:p:807-830
    DOI: 10.1177/0193841X8300700606
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0193841X8300700606
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0193841X8300700606?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Parti & Cynthia Parti, 1980. "The Total and Appliance-Specific Conditional Demand for Electricity in the Household Sector," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 11(1), pages 309-321, Spring.
    2. Olsen, Randall J, 1980. "A Least Squares Correction for Selectivity Bias," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(7), pages 1815-1820, November.
    3. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    4. Hirst, Eric & Berry, Linda & Soderstrom, Jon, 1981. "Review of utility home energy audit programs," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 6(7), pages 621-630.
    5. Heckman, James J, 1978. "Dummy Endogenous Variables in a Simultaneous Equation System," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(4), pages 931-959, July.
    6. Lester D. Taylor, 1975. "The Demand for Electricity: A Survey," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 6(1), pages 74-110, Spring.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fan Zhang, 2015. "Energy Price Reform and Household Welfare: The Case of Turkey," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    2. Michael Hennessy, 1983. "Selection Bias and the Demand for Electricity," Evaluation Review, , vol. 7(3), pages 337-356, June.
    3. James J. Heckman, 2005. "Micro Data, Heterogeneity and the Evaluation of Public Policy Part 2," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 49(1), pages 16-44, March.
    4. Peter C. Reiss & Matthew W. White, 2001. "Household Electricity Demand, Revisited," NBER Working Papers 8687, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Yoo, Seung-Hoon & Lee, Joo Suk & Kwak, Seung-Jun, 2007. "Estimation of residential electricity demand function in Seoul by correction for sample selection bias," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 5702-5707, November.
    6. Verbeek, M.J.C.M. & Nijman, T.E., 1992. "Incomplete panels and selection bias : A survey," Discussion Paper 1992-7, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    7. Takashi Yamagata & Chris Orme, 2005. "On Testing Sample Selection Bias Under the Multicollinearity Problem," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 467-481.
    8. Noble, Stephanie M. & Lee, Kang Bok & Zaretzki, Russell & Autry, Chad, 2017. "Coupon clipping by impoverished consumers: Linking demographics, basket size, and coupon redemption rates," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 553-571.
    9. Newell, Richard G. & Pizer, William A., 2008. "Carbon mitigation costs for the commercial building sector: Discrete-continuous choice analysis of multifuel energy demand," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 527-539, December.
    10. Yi-Chi Hsiao & Hsueh-Liang Wu & Chun-Ping Yeh, 2023. "An investigation of the bridging interface strategies used by Chinese MNE when undertaking FDI to Taiwan," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(4), pages 1485-1512, September.
    11. Pete Tashman & Jorge Rivera, 2016. "Ecological uncertainty, adaptation, and mitigation in the U.S. ski resort industry: Managing resource dependence and institutional pressures," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(7), pages 1507-1525, July.
    12. Benítez-Silva, Hugo & Eren, Selçuk & Heiland, Frank & Jiménez-Martín, Sergi, 2015. "How well do individuals predict the selling prices of their homes?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 12-25.
    13. Sarah Brown & Jennifer Roberts & Karl Taylor, 2010. "Reservation wages, labour market participation and health," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 173(3), pages 501-529, July.
    14. Daniel Polsky & Anirban Basu, 2012. "Selection Bias in Observational Data," Chapters, in: Andrew M. Jones (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Health Economics, Second Edition, chapter 46, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Christina Boll & Andreas Lagemann, 2018. "Does Culture Trump Money? Employment and Childcare Use of Migrant and Non-Migrant Mothers of Pre-School Children in Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 1015, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    16. Massimiliano Bratti & Alfonso Miranda, 2010. "Endogenous Treatment Effects for Count Data Models with Sample Selection or Endogenous Participation," DoQSS Working Papers 10-05, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London, revised 10 Dec 2010.
    17. Ribar, David C., 2004. "What Do Social Scientists Know About the Benefits of Marriage? A Review of Quantitative Methodologies," IZA Discussion Papers 998, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Miguel Bacharach & William J. Vaughan, 1994. "Household Water Demand Estimation," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 25218, Inter-American Development Bank.
    19. Hamermesh, Daniel S. & Donald, Stephen G., 2008. "The effect of college curriculum on earnings: An affinity identifier for non-ignorable non-response bias," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 479-491, June.
    20. Frank M. Fossen & Ray Rees & Davud Rostam-Afschar & Viktor Steiner, 2020. "The effects of income taxation on entrepreneurial investment: A puzzle?," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(6), pages 1321-1363, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:evarev:v:7:y:1983:i:6:p:807-830. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.