Estimating the Effect of Treatments Allocated by Randomized Waiting Lists

Clément de Chaisemartin and Luc Behaghel

No 26282, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Oversubscribed treatments are often allocated using randomized waiting lists. Applicants are ranked randomly, and treatment offers are made following that ranking until all seats are filled. To estimate causal effects, researchers often compare applicants getting and not getting an offer. We show that those two groups are not statistically comparable. Therefore, the estimator arising from that comparison is inconsistent when the number of waitlists goes to infinity. We propose a new estimator, and show that it is consistent, provided the waitlists have at least two seats. Finally, we revisit an application, and we show that using our estimator can lead to significantly different results from those obtained using the commonly used estimator.

JEL-codes: C21 C26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ecm and nep-exp
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published as Clément de Chaisemartin & Luc Behaghel, 2020. "Estimating the Effect of Treatments Allocated by Randomized Waiting Lists," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(4), pages 1453-1477, July.

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Related works:
Journal Article: Estimating the Effect of Treatments Allocated by Randomized Waiting Lists (2020)
Working Paper: Estimating the Effect of Treatments Allocated by Randomized Waiting Lists (2020)
Working Paper: Estimating the Effect of Treatments Allocated by Randomized Waiting Lists (2020)
Working Paper: Estimating the effect of treatments allocated by randomized waiting lists (2018)
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