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IMPLEMENTATION NEUTRALITY AND TREATMENT EVALUATION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2017

Stephen F. LeRoy
Stephen F. LeRoy*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara 93106, CA, USA. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract:

Statisticians have proposed formal techniques for evaluation of treatments, often in the context of models that do not explicitly specify how treatments are generated. Under such procedures they run the risk of attributing causation in settings where the implementation neutrality condition required for causal interpretation of parameter estimates is not satisfied. When treatment assignments are explicitly modelled, as economists recommend, these issues can be formally analysed, and the existence (or lack thereof) of implementation neutrality, and therefore quantifiable causation, can be determined. Examples are given.

Keywords

CausationTreatment evaluationImplementation neutralityIdentification
Type
Articles
Information
Economics & Philosophy , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , March 2018 , pp. 45 - 52
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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References

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