Does the choice of balance-measure matter under Genetic Matching?

Adeola Oyenubi () and Martin Wittenberg
Additional contact information
Adeola Oyenubi: University of the Witwatersrand
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Ntokozo Patrick Nzimande

No 114, ERSA Working Paper Series from Economic Research Southern Africa

Abstract: In applied studies, the influence of balance measures on the performance of matching estimators is often taken for granted. This paper considers the performance of different balance measures that have been used in the literature when balance is being optimized. We also propose the use of the entropy measure in assessing balance. To examine the effect of balance measures, we conduct a simulation study where we optimize balance using Genetic Algorithm (GenMatch). We found that balance measures do influence matching estimates under the GenMatch algorithm. The bias and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of the estimated treatment effect vary with the choice of balance measure. In the artificial Data Generating Process (DGP) with one covariate considered in this study, the proposed entropy balance measure has the lowest RMSE. The implication of these results is that sensitivity of matching estimates to the choice of balance measure should be given greater attention in empirical studies.

Keywords: genetic matching; balance measures; information theory; entrophy metric (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C14 C21 C52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-10
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in ERSA Working Paper Series, October 2024

Downloads: (external link)
https://ersawps.org/index.php/working-paper-series/article/view/114/86 First version, 2024 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Does the choice of balance-measure matter under genetic matching? (2021)
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:rza:ersawp:114

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ERSA Working Paper Series from Economic Research Southern Africa
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Maggi Sigg ().