Instrumental Variable Estimation of Average Partial Causal Effects

Abstract

Instrumental variable (IV) analysis is a powerful tool widely used to elucidate causal relationships. We study the problem of estimating the average partial causal effect (APCE) of a continuous treatment in an IV setting. Specifically, we develop new methods for estimating APCE based on a recent identification condition via an integral equation. We develop two families of methods, nonparametric and parametric - the former uses the Picard iteration to solve the integral equation; the latter parameterizes APCE using a linear basis function model. We analyze the statistical and computational properties of the proposed methods and illustrate them on synthetic and real data.