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Article
Regression Discontinuity Designs with Clustered Data: Variance and Bandwidth Choice
Economics Working Papers
  • Otávio C. Bartalotti, Iowa State University
  • Quentin O. Brummet, United States Census Bureau
Publication Date
8-1-2016
Number
16001
Abstract

Regression Discontinuity designs have become popular in empirical studies due to their attractive properties for estimating causal effects under transparent assumptions. Nonetheless, most popular procedures assume i.i.d. data, which is unreasonable in many common applications. To fill this gap, we derive the properties of traditional local polynomial estimators in a fixed-G setting that allows for cluster dependence in the error term. Simulation results demonstrate that accounting for clustering in the data while selecting bandwidths may lead to lower MSE while maintaining proper coverage. We then apply our cluster-robust procedure to an application examining the impact of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits on neighborhood characteristics and low-income housing supply.

Disciplines
File Format
application/pdf
Length
33 pages
Citation Information
Otávio C. Bartalotti and Quentin O. Brummet. "Regression Discontinuity Designs with Clustered Data: Variance and Bandwidth Choice" (2016)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/otavio-bartalotti/3/