Economic and Social Research Institute Seminar (46)
Lecture | May 19, 2017/ 1:30-2:45 p.m. | Room 106B in JNU Zhonghui Building

Title: Minimum Contrast Empirical Likelihood Manipulation Testing for Regression Discontinuity Design
Speaker: MA Jun
Sponsor: Economic and Social Research Institute of Jinan University
Publisher: Social and Scientific Research Office

ABOUT MA JUN
Ma Jun is a lecturer in School of Economics in Renmin University of China. He got his doctor's degree in University of British Columbia. His research area covers Econometrics, Statistics and Empirical Industrial Organization.

Abstract：
This paper investigates the asymptotic properties of a simple empirical-likelihood-based inference method for discontinuity in density. In a regression discontinuity design (RDD), the continuity of the density of the assignment variable at the threshold is considered as a no-manipulation behavioral assumption, which is a testable implication of an identifying condition for the local treatment effect (LATE). Our approach is based on the first-order conditions obtained from a minimum contrast (MC) problem and complements Otsu et al. (2013)’s method. Our inference procedure has three main advantages. Firstly, it requires only one tuning parameter; secondly, it does not require concentrating out any nuisance parameter and therefore is very easily implementable; thirdly, its delicate second-order properties lead to a simple coverage-error-optimal bandwidth selection rule. We propose a data-driven CE-optimal bandwidth selector for use in practice. Results from Monte Carlo simulations are presented. Usefulness of our method is illustrated by empirical examples.