Optimal Bandwidth Selection for Differences of Nonparametric Estimators with an Application to the Sharp Regression Discontinuity Design

Arai, Yoichi; Ichimura, Hidehiko

Optimal Bandwidth Selection for Differences of Nonparametric Estimators with an Application to the Sharp Regression Discontinuity Design

No CIRJE-F-889, CIRJE F-Series from CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo

Abstract: ã€€ã€€ We consider the problem of choosing two bandwidths simultaneously for estimating the difference of two functions at given points. When the asymptotic approximation of the mean squared error (AMSE) criterion is used, we show that minimization problem is not well-defined when the sign of the product of the second derivatives of the underlying functions at the estimated points is positive. To address this problem, we theoretically define and construct estimators of the asymptotically first-order optimal (AFO) bandwidths which are well-defined regardless of the sign. They are based on objective functions which incorporate a second-order bias term. Our approach is general enough to cover estimation problems related to densities and regression functions at interior and boundary points. We provide a detailed treatment of the sharp regression discontinuity design.

Pages: 52 pages
Date: 2013-06
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cirje.e.u-tokyo.ac.jp/research/dp/2013/2013cf889.pdf (application/pdf)

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tky:fseres:2013cf889

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CIRJE F-Series from CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CIRJE administrative office ().