Partial Identification in Econometrics

Elie Tamer

Scholarly Articles from Harvard University Department of Economics

Abstract: Identification in econometric models maps prior assumptions and the data to information about a parameter of interest. The partial identification approach to inference recognizes that this process should not result in a binary answer that consists of whether the parameter is point identified. Rather, given the data, the partial identification approach characterizes the informational content of various assumptions by providing a menu of estimates, each based on different sets of assumptions, some of which are plausible and some of which are not. Of course, more assumptions beget more information, so stronger conclusions can be made at the expense of more assumptions. The partial identification approach advocates a more fluid view of identification and hence provides the empirical researcher with methods to help study the spectrum of information that we can harness about a parameter of interest using a menu of assumptions. This approach links conclusions drawn from various empirical models to sets of assumptions made in a transparent way. It allows researchers to examine the informational content of their assumptions and their impacts on the inferences made. Naturally, with finite sample sizes, this approach leads to statistical complications, as one needs to deal with characterizing sampling uncertainty in models that do not point identify a parameter. Therefore, new methods for inference are developed. These methods construct confidence sets for partially identified parameters, and confidence regions for sets of parameters, or identifiable sets.

Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (151)

Published in Annual Review of Economics

Downloads: (external link)
http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/34728615/192401/pie.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not found (http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/34728615/192401/pie.pdf [301 Moved Permanently]--> https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/34728615/192401/pie.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:hrv:faseco:34728615

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Scholarly Articles from Harvard University Department of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Office for Scholarly Communication ().