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Non-testability of instrument validity under continuous endogenous variables

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  • Florian Gunsilius

Abstract

This note presents a proof of the conjecture in \citet*{pearl1995testability} about testing the validity of an instrumental variable in hidden variable models. It implies that instrument validity cannot be tested in the case where the endogenous treatment is continuously distributed. This stands in contrast to the classical testability results for instrument validity when the treatment is discrete. However, imposing weak structural assumptions on the model, such as continuity between the observable variables, can re-establish theoretical testability in the continuous setting.

Suggested Citation

  • Florian Gunsilius, 2018. "Non-testability of instrument validity under continuous endogenous variables," Papers 1806.09517, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2020.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:1806.09517
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Andrew Chesher, 2003. "Identification in Nonseparable Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(5), pages 1405-1441, September.
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    5. Toru Kitagawa, 2015. "A Test for Instrument Validity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 83(5), pages 2043-2063, September.
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    7. Toru Kitagawa, 2009. "Identification region of the potential outcome distributions under instrument independence," CeMMAP working papers CWP30/09, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
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    Cited by:

    1. Florian Gunsilius, 2019. "A path-sampling method to partially identify causal effects in instrumental variable models," Papers 1910.09502, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2020.

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