IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2107.09765.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A conditional independence test for causality in econometrics

Author

Listed:
  • Jaime Sevilla
  • Alexandra Mayn

Abstract

The Y-test is a useful tool for detecting missing confounders in the context of a multivariate regression.However, it is rarely used in practice since it requires identifying multiple conditionally independent instruments, which is often impossible. We propose a heuristic test which relaxes the independence requirement. We then show how to apply this heuristic test on a price-demand and a firm loan-productivity problem. We conclude that the test is informative when the variables are linearly related with Gaussian additive noise, but it can be misleading in other contexts. Still, we believe that the test can be a useful concept for falsifying a proposed control set.

Suggested Citation

  • Jaime Sevilla & Alexandra Mayn, 2021. "A conditional independence test for causality in econometrics," Papers 2107.09765, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2107.09765
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2107.09765
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo, 2014. "Do Firms Want to Borrow More? Testing Credit Constraints Using a Directed Lending Program," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 81(2), pages 572-607.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nicolas Apfel & Julia Hatamyar & Martin Huber & Jannis Kueck, 2024. "Learning control variables and instruments for causal analysis in observational data," Papers 2407.04448, arXiv.org.
    2. Martin Huber & Jannis Kueck, 2022. "Testing the identification of causal effects in observational data," Papers 2203.15890, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2023.

    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. Sylvain Catherine & Thomas Chaney & Zongbo Huang & David Sraer & David Thesmar, 2022. "Quantifying Reduced‐Form Evidence on Collateral Constraints," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(4), pages 2143-2181, August.
    2. Jaume Ventura & Hans-Joachim Voth, 2015. "Debt into growth: How sovereign debt accelerated the first Industrial Revolution," Economics Working Papers 1483, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    3. Renate Strobl & Conny Wunsch, 2021. "Risky choices and solidarity: disentangling different behavioural channels," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 24(4), pages 1185-1214, December.
    4. Miriam Bruhn & Dean Karlan & Antoinette Schoar, 2018. "The Impact of Consulting Services on Small and Medium Enterprises: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Mexico," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 126(2), pages 635-687.
    5. Antonia Grohmann & Lukas Menkhoff & Helke Seitz, 2022. "The Effect of Personalized Feedback on Small Enterprises’ Finances in Uganda," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 70(3), pages 1197-1227.
    6. Vittorio Bassi & Raffaela Muoio & Tommaso Porzio & Ritwika Sen & Esau Tugume, 2022. "Achieving Scale Collectively," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(6), pages 2937-2978, November.
    7. Balila Acurio & Alessandro Tomarchio, 2024. "The Effects of Business Credit Support Programs: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design," IHEID Working Papers 20-2024, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies.
    8. Tomas Williams & Pablo Slutzky & Mauricio Villamizar-Villegas, 2019. "Drug Money and Bank Lending: The Unintended Consequences of Anti-Money Laundering Policies," Working Papers 2019-5, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy, revised May 2020.
    9. Francesco Quatraro & Marco Vivarelli, 2015. "Drivers of Entrepreneurship and Post-entry Performance of Newborn Firms in Developing Countries," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 30(2), pages 277-305.
    10. Ilmiawan Auwalin, 2021. "The effect of a credit policy change on microenterprise upward transition and growth: evidence from Indonesia," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 11(4), pages 611-636, December.
    11. Asli Demirgüç-Kunt & Ross Levine, 2009. "Finance and Inequality: Theory and Evidence," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 287-318, November.
    12. Aparicio, Gabriela & Bobic, Vida & De Olloqui, Fernando & Carmen, María & Diez, María Carmen Fernández & Gerardino, Maria Paula & Mitnik, Oscar A. & Macedo, Sebastian Vargas, 2021. "Liquidity or Capital? The Impacts of Easing Credit Constraints in Rural Mexico," IZA Discussion Papers 14477, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Beck, T.H.L., 2007. "Financing constraints of SMEs in developing countries : Evidence, determinants and solutions," Other publications TiSEM 85aac075-08b5-44ce-bf1a-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    14. Ölkers, Tim & Liu, Shuang & Mußhoff, Oliver, 2023. "A typology of Malian farmers and their credit repayment performance - An unsupervised machine learning approach," 97th Annual Conference, March 27-29, 2023, Warwick University, Coventry, UK 334547, Agricultural Economics Society - AES.
    15. Lage de Sousa, Filipe & Ottaviano, Gianmarco I.P., 2018. "Relaxing credit constraints in emerging economies: The impact of public loans on the productivity of Brazilian manufacturers," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 23-47.
    16. Ricardo Hausmann & Jason Hwang & Dani Rodrik, 2007. "What you export matters," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-25, March.
    17. Paul Carrillo & Dave Donaldson & Dina Pomeranz & Monica Singhal, 2023. "Misallocation in Firm Production: A Nonparametric Analysis Using Procurement Lotteries," CESifo Working Paper Series 10485, CESifo.
    18. Abuka, Charles & Alinda, Ronnie K. & Minoiu, Camelia & Peydró, José-Luis & Presbitero, Andrea F., 2019. "Monetary policy and bank lending in developing countries: Loan applications, rates, and real effects," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 185-202.
    19. Natasha Agarwal & Chris Milner & Alejandro Riaño, 2011. "Credit Constraints and FDI Spillovers in China," Discussion Papers 11/21, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    20. Pablo Cotler & Christopher Woodruff, 2008. "The Impact of Short-Term Credit on Microenterprises: Evidence from the Fincomun-Bimbo Program in Mexico," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(4), pages 829-849, July.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:arx:papers:2107.09765. 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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    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.