We propose new methods for estimating the bid-ask spread from observed transaction prices alone. Our methods are based on the empirical characteristic function instead of the sample autocovariance function like the method of Roll (1984). As in Roll (1984), we have a closed form expression for...

Many controversies that beset the digital economy turn on the role of advertising and its use of personal data. We examine the trade-off between privacy and ad targeting accuracy from the advertisers' perspective. By exploiting Apple's gradual restriction, and ultimately the abolition of ad...

This paper extends Imbens and Manski’s (2004) analysis of confidence intervals for interval identified parameters. For their final result, Imbens and Manski implicitly assume superefficient estimation of a nuisance parameter. This appears to have gone unnoticed before, and it limits the...

Dealing with endogenous regressors is a central challenge of applied research. The standard solution is to use instrumental variables that are assumed to be uncorrelated with unobservables. We instead assume (i) the correlation between the instrument and the error term has the same sign as the...

This paper reviews a range of the most popular policy evaluation methods in empirical microeconomics: social experiments, natural experiments, matching methods, instrumental variables, discontinuity design and control functions. It discusses the identification of both the traditionally used...

Single equation instrumental variable models for discrete outcomes are shown to be set not point identifying for the structural functions that deliver the values of the discrete outcome. Identified sets are derived for a general nonparametric model and sharp set identification is demonstrated....