Synthetic Controls with Multiple Outcomes

2023/04/05 by Wei Tian, Tian, Wei, Seojeong Lee +3
Mathematics · #Advanced Causal Inference Techniques #COVID-19 epidemiological studies #FOS: Economics and business #General Economics (econ.GN)

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2304.02272

openalex publication_date 2023/04/05 · openalex created_date 2023/04/07 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We generalize the synthetic control (SC) method to a multiple-outcome framework, where the conventional pre-treatment time dimension is supplemented with the extra dimension of related outcomes in computing the SC weights. This generalization improves the reliability of treatment effect estimation, and can be particularly useful for evaluating the effect of a treatment on multiple outcomes or when only a small number of pre-treatment periods are available. To illustrate our method, we provide a new perspective on the classic SC application to the 1990 German reunification.

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