Spotlight on Researcher Decisions – Infrastructure Evaluation, Instrumental Variables, and Specification Screening

Konferenzbeitrag

This paper revisits the instrumental variable (IV) approach in Lipscomb et al. (2013, 2021, LMB) to study the impacts of electrification. We first make corrections to the construction of the dataset, including the modelled IV. Revised estimates on main outcomes and mechanisms are statistically insignificant, with substantially lower effect sizes. We second develop a framework that accounts for weak IVs and discourages specification screening. Applying it to LMB, we find that most theoretically justified specifications yield insignificant results. The proposed framework is transferable to other IV applications to reduce potential bias stemming from researcher's or replicator's discretion.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: Beiträge zur Jahrestagung des Vereins für Socialpolitik 2023: Growth and the "sociale Frage"

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Economic Development: Agriculture; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Other Primary Products ; Model Evaluation, Validation, and Selection ; Economic Development: Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure
• Thema: replication ; instrumental variables ; electrification ; infrastructure ; specification curve analysis ; robust inference

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Bensch, Gunther ; Ankel-Peters, Jörg ; Vance, Colin
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics
• (wo): Kiel, Hamburg
• (wann): 2023

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/277703
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:41 MEZ