Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/260392 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
cemmap working paper No. CWP11/22
Publisher: 
Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice (cemmap), London
Abstract: 
We develop a framework for difference-in-differences designs with staggered treatment adoption and heterogeneous causal effects. We show that conventional regression-based estimators fail to provide unbiased estimates of relevant estimands absent strong restrictions on treatment-effect homogeneity. We then derive the efficient estimator addressing this challenge, which takes an intuitive "imputation" form when treatment-effect heterogeneity is unrestricted. We characterize the asymptotic behavior of the estimator, propose tools for inference, and develop tests for identifying assumptions. Extensions include time-varying controls, triple-differences, and certain non-binary treatments. We show the practical relevance of these insights in a simulation study and an application. Studying the consumption response to tax rebates in the United States, we find that the notional marginal propensity to consume is between 8 and 11 percent in the first quarter - about half as large as benchmark estimates used to calibrate macroeconomic models- and predominantly occurs in the first month after the rebate.
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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