Working Paper BETA #2012-07

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Title : Considerations on partially identified regression models.

Author(s) : Daniel Cerquera, François Laisney, Hannes Ullrich

Abstract : Motivated by Manski and Tamer (2002) and especially their partial identification anal- ysis of the regression model where one covariate is only interval-measured, we offer several contributions. Manski and Tamer (2002) propose two estimation approaches in this context, focussing on general results. The modified minimum distance (MMD) estimates the true identified set and the modified method of moments (MMM) a superset. Our first contri- bution is to characterize the true identified set and the superset. Second, we complete and extend the Monte Carlo study of Manski and Tamer (2002). We present benchmark results using the exact functional form for the expectation of the dependent variable conditional on observables to compare with results using its nonparametric estimates, and illustrate the superiority of MMD over MMM. For MMD, we propose a simple shortcut for estimation.

Key-words : partial identification, true identified set, superset, MMD, MMM, estimation.

JEL Classification : C01, C13, C40.