Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/306623 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
cemmap working paper No. CWP19/24
Publisher: 
Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice (cemmap), London
Abstract: 
Empirical Welfare Maximization (EWM) is a framework that can be used to select welfare program eligibility policies based on data. This paper extends EWM by allowing for uncertainty in estimating the budget needed to implement the selected policy, in addition to its welfare. Due to the additional estimation error, I show there exist no rules that achieve the highest welfare possible while satisfying a budget constraint uniformly over a wide range of DGPs. This differs from the setting without a budget constraint where uniformity is achievable. I propose an alternative trade-off rule and illustrate it with Medicaid expansion, a setting with imperfect take-up and varying program costs.
Subjects: 
empirical welfare maximization
heterogeneous treatment effects and costs
cost-benefit analysis
local asymptotics
JEL: 
C14
C44
C52
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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