Prediction Intervals for Synthetic Control Methods

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Publication:5881968

DOI10.1080/01621459.2021.1979561zbMATH Open1506.62244arXiv1912.07120OpenAlexW3199796228MaRDI QIDQ5881968FDOQ5881968


Authors: Matias D. Cattaneo, Yingjie Feng, Rocío Titiunik Edit this on Wikidata


Publication date: 14 March 2023

Published in: Journal of the American Statistical Association (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Uncertainty quantification is a fundamental problem in the analysis and interpretation of synthetic control (SC) methods. We develop conditional prediction intervals in the SC framework, and provide conditions under which these intervals offer finite-sample probability guarantees. Our method allows for covariate adjustment and non-stationary data. The construction begins by noting that the statistical uncertainty of the SC prediction is governed by two distinct sources of randomness: one coming from the construction of the (likely misspecified) SC weights in the pre-treatment period, and the other coming from the unobservable stochastic error in the post-treatment period when the treatment effect is analyzed. Accordingly, our proposed prediction intervals are constructed taking into account both sources of randomness. For implementation, we propose a simulation-based approach along with finite-sample-based probability bound arguments, naturally leading to principled sensitivity analysis methods. We illustrate the numerical performance of our methods using empirical applications and a small simulation study. exttt{Python}, exttt{R} and exttt{Stata} software packages implementing our methodology are available.


Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.07120




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