Fixed-effects estimation of the linear discrete-time hazard model : an adjusted first-differences estimator

This paper shows that popular linear fixed-effects panel-data estimators (first-differences, within-transformation) are biased and inconsistent when applied in a discrete-time hazard setting, that is, one with the outcome variable being a binary dummy indicating an absorbing state, even if the data generating process is fully consistent with the linear discrete-time hazard model. Besides conventional survival bias, these estimators suffer from another source of - potentially severe - bias that originates from the data transformation itself and is present even in the absence of any unobserved heterogeneity. We suggest an alternative, computationally very simple, adjusted first-differences estimator that cures the data-transformation driven bias of the classical estimators. The theoretical line of argument is supported by evidence from Monte Carlo simulations and is illustrated by an empirical application.