Working Paper: NBER ID: w24616
Authors: Brigham R. Frandsen; Lars J. Lefgren
Abstract: We bound the distribution of treatment effects under plausible and testable assumptions on the joint distribution of potential outcomes, namely that potential outcomes are mutually stochastically increasing. We show how to test the empirical restrictions implied by those assumptions. The resulting bounds substantially sharpen bounds based on classical inequalities. We apply our method to estimate bounds on the distribution of effects of attending a Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) charter school on student academic achievement, and find that a substantial majority of students' math achievement benefitted from attendance, especially those who would have fared poorly in a traditional classroom.
Keywords: treatment effects; education; KIPP; stochastic dominance
JEL Codes: C01; I21
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| KIPP attendance (I24) | math achievement (C02) |
| poor performance in traditional classroom (D29) | math achievement (C02) |
| KIPP attendance (I24) | benefit for disadvantaged students (I24) |
| bounds on treatment effects (C22) | ruling out harm from treatment (I18) |