Direct and Indirect Treatment Effects: Causal Chains and Mediation Analysis with Instrumental Variables

Markus Frölich () and Martin Huber

No 8280, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper discusses the nonparametric identification of causal direct and indirect effects of a binary treatment based on instrumental variables. We identify the indirect effect, which operates through a mediator (i.e. intermediate variable) that is situated on the causal path between the treatment and the outcome, as well as the unmediated direct effect of the treatment using distinct instruments for the endogenous treatment and the endogenous mediator. We examine different settings to obtain nonparametric identification of (natural) direct and indirect as well as controlled direct effects for continuous and discrete mediators and continuous and discrete instruments. We illustrate our approach in two applications: to disentangle the effects (i) of education on health, which may be mediated by income, and (ii) of the Job Corps training program, which may affect earnings indirectly via working longer hours and directly via higher wages per hour.

Keywords: instrument; indirect effect; direct effect; treatment effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C14 C21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 76 pages
Date: 2014-06
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Published - published in: Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 2017, 79 (5), 1645 - 1666

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp8280.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Direct and indirect treatment effects–causal chains and mediation analysis with instrumental variables (2017)
Working Paper: Direct and indirect treatment effects: causal chains and mediation analysis with instrumental variables (2015)
Working Paper: Direct and indirect treatment effects: causal chains and mediation analysis with instrumental variables (2014)
Working Paper: Direct and indirect treatment effects: causal chains and mediation analysis with instrumental variables (2014)
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:iza:izadps:dp8280

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().