Beyond Linearity: Semiparametric Solutions to Contamination Bias with Multi-valued Treatments

Michel Csillag Finger and Vitor Possebom

Papers from arXiv.org

Abstract: We examine semiparametric solutions to contamination bias for nonbinary treatments. Deepening the discussion by Goldsmith-Pinkham et al. (2024), we detail how spline functions approximate conditional expectation and propensity score functions under weak functional-form assumptions. Reanalyzing 18 regressions across 11 studies, we compare standard linear regressions against parametric and semiparametric versions of three contamination-robust estimators. We document large point-estimate discrepancies between parametric and semiparametric approaches and find that adopting flexible semiparametric solutions may not increase statistical uncertainty substantially. We recommend that researchers verify the robustness of their conclusions to the use of semiparametric tools that address contamination bias.

Date: 2026-09
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.20473 Latest version (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:arx:papers:2609.20473

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Papers from arXiv.org
Bibliographic data for series maintained by arXiv administrators ().