IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2306.12003.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Difference-in-Differences with Interference

Author

Listed:
  • Ruonan Xu

Abstract

In many scenarios, such as the evaluation of place-based policies, potential outcomes are not only dependent upon the unit's own treatment but also its neighbors' treatment. Despite this, "difference-in-differences" (DID) type estimators typically ignore such interference among neighbors. I show in this paper that the canonical DID estimators generally fail to identify interesting causal effects in the presence of neighborhood interference. To incorporate interference structure into DID estimation, I propose doubly robust estimators for the direct average treatment effect on the treated as well as the average spillover effects under a modified parallel trends assumption. The approach in this paper relaxes common restrictions in the literature, such as partial interference and correctly specified spillover functions. Moreover, robust inference is discussed based on the asymptotic distribution of the proposed estimators.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruonan Xu, 2023. "Difference-in-Differences with Interference," Papers 2306.12003, arXiv.org, revised May 2024.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2306.12003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2306.12003
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Delgado, Michael S. & Florax, Raymond J.G.M., 2015. "Difference-in-differences techniques for spatial data: Local autocorrelation and spatial interaction," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 123-126.
    2. Charles F. Manski, 2013. "Identification of treatment response with social interactions," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 16(1), pages 1-23, February.
    3. Dalia Ghanem & Pedro H. C. Sant'Anna & Kaspar Wüthrich, 2022. "Selection and Parallel Trends," CESifo Working Paper Series 9910, CESifo.
    4. Hudgens, Michael G. & Halloran, M. Elizabeth, 2008. "Toward Causal Inference With Interference," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 103, pages 832-842, June.
    5. Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C. & Zhao, Jun, 2020. "Doubly robust difference-in-differences estimators," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 219(1), pages 101-122.
    6. Alberto Abadie & Guido W. Imbens, 2002. "Simple and Bias-Corrected Matching Estimators for Average Treatment Effects," NBER Technical Working Papers 0283, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Yukun Ma & Pedro H. C. Sant'Anna & Yuya Sasaki & Takuya Ura, 2023. "Doubly Robust Estimators with Weak Overlap," Papers 2304.08974, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2023.
    8. Ekaterina Jardim & Mark C. Long & Robert Plotnick & Emma van Inwegen & Jacob Vigdor & Hilary Wething, 2022. "Minimum-Wage Increases and Low-Wage Employment: Evidence from Seattle," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 14(2), pages 263-314, May.
    9. Jenish, Nazgul & Prucha, Ingmar R., 2009. "Central limit theorems and uniform laws of large numbers for arrays of random fields," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 150(1), pages 86-98, May.
    10. Alberto Abadie, 2005. "Semiparametric Difference-in-Differences Estimators," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(1), pages 1-19.
    11. Charles F. Manski, 1993. "Identification of Endogenous Social Effects: The Reflection Problem," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(3), pages 531-542.
    12. Athey, Susan & Imbens, Guido W., 2022. "Design-based analysis in Difference-In-Differences settings with staggered adoption," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 226(1), pages 62-79.
    13. Xinwei Ma & Jingshen Wang, 2020. "Robust Inference Using Inverse Probability Weighting," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 115(532), pages 1851-1860, December.
    14. Michael P. Leung, 2022. "Causal Inference Under Approximate Neighborhood Interference," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(1), pages 267-293, January.
    15. Ashesh Rambachan & Jonathan Roth, 2020. "Design-Based Uncertainty for Quasi-Experiments," Papers 2008.00602, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2024.
    16. Newey, Whitney K, 1991. "Uniform Convergence in Probability and Stochastic Equicontinuity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(4), pages 1161-1167, July.
    17. Anish Agarwal & Sarah H. Cen & Devavrat Shah & Christina Lee Yu, 2022. "Network Synthetic Interventions: A Causal Framework for Panel Data Under Network Interference," Papers 2210.11355, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2023.
    18. Clarke, Damian, 2017. "Estimating Difference-in-Differences in the Presence of Spillovers," MPRA Paper 81604, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Ruonan Xu & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2022. "A Design-Based Approach to Spatial Correlation," Papers 2211.14354, arXiv.org.
    20. Kojevnikov, Denis & Marmer, Vadim & Song, Kyungchul, 2021. "Limit theorems for network dependent random variables," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 222(2), pages 882-908.
    21. Kosuke Imai & Marc Ratkovic, 2014. "Covariate balancing propensity score," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 76(1), pages 243-263, January.
    22. Laura Forastiere & Edoardo M. Airoldi & Fabrizia Mealli, 2021. "Identification and Estimation of Treatment and Interference Effects in Observational Studies on Networks," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 116(534), pages 901-918, April.
    23. Dmitry Arkhangelsky & Guido W. Imbens & Lihua Lei & Xiaoman Luo, 2021. "Design-Robust Two-Way-Fixed-Effects Regression For Panel Data," Papers 2107.13737, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2024.
    24. Zhaonan Qu & Ruoxuan Xiong & Jizhou Liu & Guido Imbens, 2021. "Semiparametric Estimation of Treatment Effects in Observational Studies with Heterogeneous Partial Interference," Papers 2107.12420, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2024.
    25. Jenish, Nazgul & Prucha, Ingmar R., 2012. "On spatial processes and asymptotic inference under near-epoch dependence," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 170(1), pages 178-190.
    26. Alberto Abadie & Guido W. Imbens & Fanyin Zheng, 2014. "Inference for Misspecified Models With Fixed Regressors," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 109(508), pages 1601-1614, December.
    27. Rafael Di Tella & Ernesto Schargrodsky, 2004. "Do Police Reduce Crime? Estimates Using the Allocation of Police Forces After a Terrorist Attack," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(1), pages 115-133, March.
    28. Guido W. Imbens, 2004. "Nonparametric Estimation of Average Treatment Effects Under Exogeneity: A Review," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(1), pages 4-29, February.
    29. Jonathan Roth & Pedro H. C. Sant'Anna, 2023. "When Is Parallel Trends Sensitive to Functional Form?," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 91(2), pages 737-747, March.
    30. Jonathan Roth, 2022. "Pretest with Caution: Event-Study Estimates after Testing for Parallel Trends," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 4(3), pages 305-322, September.
    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. Ruonan Xu & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2022. "A Design-Based Approach to Spatial Correlation," Papers 2211.14354, arXiv.org.
    2. Dmitry Arkhangelsky & Guido Imbens, 2023. "Causal Models for Longitudinal and Panel Data: A Survey," Papers 2311.15458, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2024.
    3. Roth, Jonathan & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C. & Bilinski, Alyssa & Poe, John, 2023. "What’s trending in difference-in-differences? A synthesis of the recent econometrics literature," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 235(2), pages 2218-2244.
    4. Haoge Chang, 2023. "Design-based Estimation Theory for Complex Experiments," Papers 2311.06891, arXiv.org.
    5. Gregory Faletto, 2023. "Fused Extended Two-Way Fixed Effects for Difference-in-Differences With Staggered Adoptions," Papers 2312.05985, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2024.
    6. Michael P. Leung, 2022. "Causal Inference Under Approximate Neighborhood Interference," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(1), pages 267-293, January.
    7. Tadao Hoshino & Takahide Yanagi, 2021. "Causal Inference with Noncompliance and Unknown Interference," Papers 2108.07455, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2023.
    8. Hao, Shiming, 2021. "True structure change, spurious treatment effect? A novel approach to disentangle treatment effects from structure changes," MPRA Paper 108679, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Han, Kevin & Basse, Guillaume & Bojinov, Iavor, 2024. "Population interference in panel experiments," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 238(1).
    10. Michael P. Leung, 2021. "Rate-Optimal Cluster-Randomized Designs for Spatial Interference," Papers 2111.04219, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2022.
    11. Sourafel Girma & Yundan Gong & Holger Görg & Sandra Lancheros, 2016. "Estimating direct and indirect effects of foreign direct investment on firm productivity in the presence of interactions between firms," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES AND HOST COUNTRY DEVELOPMENT, chapter 12, pages 227-239, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    12. Huber, Martin & Steinmayr, Andreas, 2017. "A framework for separating individual treatment effects from spillover, interaction, and general equilibrium effects," FSES Working Papers 481, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Freiburg/Fribourg Switzerland.
    13. Susan Athey & Guido W. Imbens, 2017. "The State of Applied Econometrics: Causality and Policy Evaluation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(2), pages 3-32, Spring.
    14. Tübbicke Stefan, 2022. "Entropy Balancing for Continuous Treatments," Journal of Econometric Methods, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 71-89, January.
    15. Tamara Bischof & Boris Kaiser, 2021. "Who cares when you close down? The effects of primary care practice closures on patients," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(9), pages 2004-2025, September.
    16. Vazquez-Bare, Gonzalo, 2023. "Identification and estimation of spillover effects in randomized experiments," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 237(1).
    17. Davide Viviano, 2020. "Experimental Design under Network Interference," Papers 2003.08421, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2022.
    18. Yuehao Bai & Azeem M. Shaikh & Max Tabord-Meehan, 2024. "A Primer on the Analysis of Randomized Experiments and a Survey of some Recent Advances," Papers 2405.03910, arXiv.org.
    19. Butts, Kyle, 2023. "JUE Insight: Difference-in-differences with geocoded microdata," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    20. Callaway, Brantly & Li, Tong, 2023. "Policy evaluation during a pandemic," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 236(1).

    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:2306.12003. 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.