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Program evaluation of treatment effect heterogeneity theory and applications Chiyoung Ahn

Dissertations & Theses @ University of Pennsylvania Available online

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Format:
Book
Thesis/Dissertation
Author/Creator:
Ahn, Chiyoung, author.
Contributor:
University of Pennsylvania. Economics., degree granting institution.
Language:
English
Subjects (All):
Statistics.
Law.
Public policy.
0501.
0511.
0398.
0630.
0463.
Local Subjects:
Statistics.
Law.
Public policy.
0501.
0511.
0398.
0630.
0463.
Genre:
Academic theses
Physical Description:
1 online resource (216 pages)
Contained In:
Dissertations Abstracts International 87-12B
Place of Publication:
Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 2026
Language Note:
English
Summary:
This dissertation develops identification and inference methods for treatment effect heterogeneity, with applications to program evaluation. The first chapter develops a framework that identifies and tests treatment effect heterogeneity using prognostic variables-risk scores or proxy means that predict untreated outcomes without directly influencing treatment effects; I formalize the identifying assumptions, establish identification of a treatment response kernel that summarizes how treated outcomes are generated from untreated outcomes, propose a plug-in estimator, derive its asymptotic distribution, and develop a test for structural hypotheses such as monotonicity. The second chapter introduces a distributional regression framework that identifies the distribution of treatment effects by leveraging prognostic variables, develops a two-step estimator with large-sample theory, and applies the method to the National Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) Study with remote past earnings as prognostic variables, uncovering substantial previously undocumented offsetting heterogeneity: a sizable subset of participants gain more than $10,000 cumulatively over the 30-month follow-up despite modest mean effects. The third chapter (co-authored with Hiroyuki Kasahara) develops event-study designs for discrete outcomes under transition independence-transition dynamics conditional on past outcomes that are identical for treated and control units-showing how this assumption identifies dynamic treatment effects on binary and ordered outcomes, and provides estimators and inference procedures.
Notes:
Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 87-12, Section: B.
Advisors: Todd, Petra Committee members: Adusumilli, Karun; Cheng, Xu; Kasahara, Hiroyuki
Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania 2026
Vendor supplied data
Local Notes:
School code: 0175
ISBN:
9798247983101
Access Restriction:
Restricted for use by site license

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