The Econometric Model for Causal Policy Analysis

James Heckman and Rodrigo Pinto ()
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Rodrigo Pinto: Department of Economics, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA

Annual Review of Economics, 2022, vol. 14, issue 1, 893-923

Abstract: This article discusses the econometric model of causal policy analysis and two alternative frameworks that are popular in statistics and computer science. By employing the alternative frameworks uncritically, economists ignore the substantial advantages of an econometric approach, and this results in less informative analyses of economic policy. We show that the econometric approach to causality enables economists to characterize and analyze a wider range of policy problems than is allowed by alternative approaches.

Keywords: policy analysis; econometric models; causality; identification; causal calculus; directed acyclic graphs; treatment effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C10 C18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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DOI: 10.1146/annurev-economics-051520-015456

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