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A General Approach to Relaxing Unconfoundedness

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  • Matthew A. Masten
  • Alexandre Poirier
  • Muyang Ren

Abstract

This paper defines a general class of relaxations of the unconfoundedness assumption. This class includes several previous approaches as special cases, including the marginal sensitivity model of Tan (2006). This class therefore allows us to precisely compare and contrast these previously disparate relaxations. We use this class to derive a variety of new identification results which can be used to assess sensitivity to unconfoundedness. In particular, the prior literature focuses on average parameters, like the average treatment effect (ATE). We move beyond averages by providing sharp bounds for a large class of parameters, including both the quantile treatment effect (QTE) and the distribution of treatment effects (DTE), results which were previously unknown even for the marginal sensitivity model.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthew A. Masten & Alexandre Poirier & Muyang Ren, 2025. "A General Approach to Relaxing Unconfoundedness," Papers 2501.15400, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2501.15400
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Victor Chernozhukov & Iván Fernández‐Val & Ye Luo, 2018. "The Sorted Effects Method: Discovering Heterogeneous Effects Beyond Their Averages," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 86(6), pages 1911-1938, November.
    2. Tan, Zhiqiang, 2006. "A Distributional Approach for Causal Inference Using Propensity Scores," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 101, pages 1619-1637, December.
    3. Jacob Dorn & Kevin Guo, 2023. "Sharp Sensitivity Analysis for Inverse Propensity Weighting via Quantile Balancing," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 118(544), pages 2645-2657, October.
    4. James J. Heckman & Jeffrey Smith & Nancy Clements, 1997. "Making The Most Out Of Programme Evaluations and Social Experiments: Accounting For Heterogeneity in Programme Impacts," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 64(4), pages 487-535.
    5. Matthew A. Masten & Alexandre Poirier & Linqi Zhang, 2024. "Assessing Sensitivity to Unconfoundedness: Estimation and Inference," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(1), pages 1-13, January.
    6. Jacob Dorn & Kevin Guo, 2021. "Sharp Sensitivity Analysis for Inverse Propensity Weighting via Quantile Balancing," Papers 2102.04543, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2023.
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