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Sharp Identification Regions in Models With Convex Moment Predictions
Author(s) -
Beresteanu Arie,
Molchanov Ilya,
Molinari Francesca
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
econometrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 16.7
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1468-0262
pISSN - 0012-9682
DOI - 10.3982/ecta8680
Subject(s) - identification (biology) , moment (physics) , regular polygon , mathematics , econometrics , mathematical economics , economics , statistical physics , physics , geometry , classical mechanics , biology , botany
We provide a tractable characterization of the sharp identification region of the parameter vector θ in a broad class of incomplete econometric models. Models in this class have set‐valued predictions that yield a convex set of conditional or unconditional moments for the observable model variables. In short, we call these models with convex moment predictions . Examples include static, simultaneous‐move finite games of complete and incomplete information in the presence of multiple equilibria; best linear predictors with interval outcome and covariate data; and random utility models of multinomial choice in the presence of interval regressors data. Given a candidate value for θ , we establish that the convex set of moments yielded by the model predictions can be represented as the Aumann expectation of a properly defined random set. The sharp identification region of θ , denoted Θ I , can then be obtained as the set of minimizers of the distance from a properly specified vector of moments of random variables to this Aumann expectation. Algorithms in convex programming can be exploited to efficiently verify whether a candidate θ is in Θ I . We use examples analyzed in the literature to illustrate the gains in identification and computational tractability afforded by our method.