Bartik Instruments: What, When, Why, and How

Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, Isaac Sorkin and Henry Swift

No 24408, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: The Bartik instrument is formed by interacting local industry shares and national industry growth rates. We show that the typical use of a Bartik instrument assumes a pooled exposure research design, where the shares measure differential exposure to common shocks, and identification is based on exogeneity of the shares. Next, we show how the Bartik instrument weights each of the exposure designs. Finally, we discuss how to assess the plausibility of the research design. We illustrate our results through three applications: estimating the elasticity of labor supply, estimating local labor market effects of Chinese imports, and estimating the elasticity of substitution between immigrants and natives.

JEL-codes: C1 C18 C2 J0 J2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-ure
Note: CF CH EFG ITI LS
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (260)

Published as Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham & Isaac Sorkin & Henry Swift, 2020. "Bartik Instruments: What, When, Why, and How," American Economic Review, vol 110(8), pages 2586-2624.

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Journal Article: Bartik Instruments: What, When, Why, and How (2020)
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