Journal article
Regression discontinuity designs based on population thresholds: pitfalls and solutions
- Abstract:
-
In many countries, important features of municipal government (such as the electoral system, mayors' salaries, and the number of councillors) depend on whether the municipality is above or below arbitrary population thresholds. Several papers have used a regression discontinuity design (RDD) to measure the effects of these threshold-based policies on political and economic outcomes. Using evidence from France, Germany, and Italy, we highlight two common pitfalls that arise in exploiting population-based policies (compound treatment and sorting) and we provide guidance for detecting and addressing these pitfalls. Even when these problems are present, population-threshold RDD may be the best available research design for studying the effects of certain policies and political institutions.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Access Document
- Files:
-
-
(Preview, Accepted manuscript, pdf, 471.3KB, Terms of use)
-
Authors
- Publisher:
- Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
- Journal:
- IZA Discussion Papers More from this journal
- Volume:
- 9553
- Publication date:
- 2015-12-01
- ISSN:
-
2365-9793
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
-
pubs:679438
- UUID:
-
uuid:b8459265-d6da-466e-8346-0dbafbc4fcff
- Local pid:
-
pubs:679438
- Source identifiers:
-
679438
- Deposit date:
-
2017-05-04
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Eggers etal
- Copyright date:
- 2015
- Notes:
- This is the author accepted manuscript following peer review version of the article. The final version is available online from Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) at: http://legacy.iza.org/en/webcontent/publications/papers/viewAbstract?dp_id=9553
If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record