Causal Inference: The Mixtape

Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
	What Is Causal Inference?
	Do Not Confuse Correlation with Causality
	Optimization Makes Everything Endogenous
	Example: Identifying Price Elasticity of Demand
	Conclusion
Probability and Regression Review
Directed Acyclic Graphs
	Introduction to DAG Notation
Potential Outcomes Causal Model
	Physical Randomization
	Randomization Inference
	Conclusion
Matching and Subclassification
	Subclassification
	Exact Matching
	Approximate Matching
Regression Discontinuity
	Huge Popularity of Regression Discontinuity
	Estimation Using an RDD
	Challenges to Identification
	Replicating a Popular Design: The Close Election
	Regression Kink Design
	Conclusion
Instrumental Variables
	History of Instrumental Variables: Father and Son
	Intuition of Instrumental Variables
	Homogeneous Treatment Effects
	Parental Methamphetamine Abuse and Foster Care
	The Problem of Weak Instruments
	Heterogeneous Treatment Effects
	Applications
	Popular IV Designs
	Conclusion
Panel Data
	DAG Example
	Estimation
	Data Exercise: Survey of Adult Service Providers
	Conclusion
Difference-in-Differences
	John Snow’s Cholera Hypothesis
	Estimation
	Inference
	Providing Evidence for Parallel Trends Through Event Studies and Parallel Leads
	The Importance of Placebos in DD
	Twoway Fixed Effects with Differential Timing
	Conclusion
Synthetic Control
	Introducing the Comparative Case Study
	Prison Construction and Black Male Incarceration
Conclusion
Bibliography
Permissions Index
Index