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qte (version 2.0.0)

ddid_gt: Distributional DiD: group-time estimator

Description

Computes the distributional DiD ATT and counterfactual outcome distribution for a single 2x2 (pre/post x treated/control) data subset. Serves directly as the attgt_fun argument to ptetools::pte.

Identification. Under distributional parallel trends and a copula restriction (Callaway, Li, and Oka 2018), the counterfactual outcome for each control unit \(j\) is $$kcf_j = \Delta Y_{\text{ctrl},j} + Q_{1,\text{pre}}(u_j)$$ where \(\Delta Y_{\text{ctrl},j} = Y_{\text{post},j} - Y_{\text{pre},j}\) is the observed change for control unit \(j\), \(u_j = F_{0,\text{pre}}(Y_{\text{pre},j})\) is that unit's rank in the control pre-period distribution, and \(Q_{1,\text{pre}}\) is the quantile function of the treated pre-period distribution. The unconditional counterfactual distribution \(F_{Y(0),\text{post}|D=1}\) is then the (weighted) empirical CDF of \(\{kcf_j\}\).

Unlike CiC, QDiD, and MDiD, the counterfactual is indexed over control units, not treated units. Consequently F0 and the ATT counterfactual term are weighted by w_pre_ctrl, and no individual treatment effect distribution (Fte) is returned.

Panel data required. The estimator needs the actual change \(\Delta Y_{\text{ctrl},j}\) for each control unit, which requires observing the same units in both periods.

Usage

ddid_gt(gt_data, xformula = ~1, ...)

Value

A ptetools::attgt_noif object with the ATT estimate and, in extra_gt_returns, F0 (weighted ECDF of counterfactual outcomes indexed over control units), F1 (weighted ECDF of observed treated post-period outcomes), and Fte = NULL (individual treatment effect distribution is not identified for this estimator).

Arguments

gt_data

A data frame (typically a gt_data_frame from ptetools) with columns name ("pre" or "post"), D (treatment dummy), Y (outcome), id (unit identifier), .w (sampling weights), and any covariate columns referenced by xformula. Control units must be observed in both periods.

xformula

One-sided formula for covariates. Default ~1 uses no covariates. With covariates, the unconditional rank \(u_j\) is replaced by a conditional rank estimated via quantile regression on the control pre-period (QR0tmin1), and the treated pre-period quantile is replaced by a conditional quantile (QR1tmin1) evaluated at that rank and the control unit's own covariate values.

...

Additional arguments passed through by ptetools; not used directly.

References

Callaway, Brantly, Tong Li, and Tatsushi Oka. ``Quantile Treatment Effects in Difference in Differences Models under Dependence Restrictions and with Only Two Time Periods.'' Journal of Econometrics 206(2), pp. 395-413, 2018.