The Econometric SocietyEdited by: Guido W. Imbens • Print ISSN: 0012-9682 • Online ISSN: 1468-0262
Econometrica: Mar, 2021, Volume 89, Issue 2
https://doi.org/10.3982/ECTA14667
p. 849-873
Jerry Hausman, Haoyang Liu, Ye Luo, Christopher Palmer
We study the consequences of measurement error in the dependent variable of random‐coefficients models, focusing on the particular case of quantile regression. The popular quantile regression estimator of Koenker and Bassett (1978) is biased if there is an additive error term. Approaching this problem as an errors‐in‐variables problem where the dependent variable suffers from classical measurement error, we present a sieve maximum likelihood approach that is robust to left‐hand‐side measurement error. After providing sufficient conditions for identification, we demonstrate that when the number of knots in the quantile grid is chosen to grow at an adequate speed, the sieve‐maximum‐likelihood estimator is consistent and asymptotically normal, permitting inference via bootstrapping. Monte Carlo evidence verifies our method outperforms quantile regression in mean bias and MSE. Finally, we illustrate our estimator with an application to the returns to education highlighting changes over time in the returns to education that have previously been masked by measurement‐error bias.
This zip file contains the replication files for the manuscript.
In this appendix, we present implementation details for our maximum-likelihood estimator.
March 5, 2024
The terms of the Editors of the Econometric Society's three journals end June 30, 2025. We are pleased to announce the incoming Editors and to thank the outgoing Editors for their excellent and continuing service.
Econometrica: Since 2019, Guido Imbens has served as the 14th Editor of Econometrica. On July 1, 2025, Marina Halac will become the Editor.
Quantitative Economics: Stéphane Bonhomme has been the Editor of Quantitative Economics since 2021. His successor will be Bernard Salanié.
Theoretical Economics: The Editor of Theoretical Economics since 2021 has been Simon Board. Taking over for him in July 2025 will be Federico Echenique.
Guido, Stéphane, and Simon have been outstanding Editors. We are grateful to them for the work they have done and will continue to do, and we look forward to further congratulating them next year. We believe Marina, Bernard, and Federico will be outstanding successors and we thank them in advance for their service.
Finally, we are grateful to Larry Samuelson for chairing all three search committees, and we thank the search committee members for their hard and fruitful work:
Econometrica: Christian Dustmann, Lars Hansen, Alessandro Lizzeri, George Mailath, Ariel Pakes, Helene Rey, and Elie Tamer.
QE: Kate Ho, Michael Keane, Felix Kubler, Whitney Newey, and Frank Schorfheide.
TE: Jeff Ely, Johannes Horner, Gilat Levy, Meg Meyer, and Ran Spiegler.
