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Annual Review of Economics

Volume 14, 2022

The Econometric Model for Causal Policy Analysis

Abstract

This article discusses the econometric model of causal policy analysis and two alternative frameworks that are popular in statistics and computer science. By employing the alternative frameworks uncritically, economists ignore the substantial advantages of an econometric approach, and this results in less informative analyses of economic policy. We show that the econometric approach to causality enables economists to characterize and analyze a wider range of policy problems than is allowed by alternative approaches.

Keyword(s): causal calculus, causality, directed acyclic graphs, econometric models, identification, JEL C10, JEL C18, policy analysis, treatment effects

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2022-08-12
2024-04-27
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The Econometric Model for Causal Policy Analysis
Annual Review of Economics 14, 893 (2022); https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-economics-051520-015456
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-economics-051520-015456
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-economics-051520-015456
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