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A comparison of treatment effects estimators using a structural model of AMI treatment choices and severity of illness information from hospital charts
Author(s) -
Khwaja Ahmed,
Picone Gabriel,
Salm Martin,
Trogdon Justin G.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of applied econometrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.878
H-Index - 99
eISSN - 1099-1255
pISSN - 0883-7252
DOI - 10.1002/jae.1181
Subject(s) - estimator , matching (statistics) , econometrics , chart , treatment effect , average treatment effect , statistics , propensity score matching , estimation , computer science , medicine , economics , mathematics , management , traditional medicine
Abstract We compare the performance of various matching estimators using a novel approach that is feasible in the absence of experimental data. We estimate a structural model of hospital choices and catheterization for Medicare heart attack victims using hospital chart data on patient heterogeneity. With the estimated structural parameters, we simulate data for which the treatment effect is known. We find that as measures of individual heterogeneity are added to the controls, matching estimators perform well. However, the estimators do a poor job recovering the true treatment effect when measures of individual heterogeneity are unavailable. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.