IDENTIFICATION AND ESTIMATION OF CAUSAL EFFECTS WITH TIME‐VARYING TREATMENTS AND TIME-VARYING OUTCOMES*

Authors: Brand, Jennie E.; Xie, Yu

Source: Sociological Methodology, Volume 37, Number 1, December 2007 , pp. 393-434(42)

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Abstract:

We develop an approach to identifying and estimating causal effects in longitudinal settings with time-varying treatments and time-varying outcomes. The classic potential outcome approach to causal inference generally involves two time periods: units of analysis are exposed to one of two possible values of the causal variable, treatment or control, at a given point in time, and values for an outcome are assessed some time subsequent to exposure. In this paper, we develop a potential outcome approach for longitudinal situations in which both exposure to treatment and the effects of treatment are time-varying. In this longitudinal setting, the research interest centers not on only two potential outcomes, but on a whole matrix of potential outcomes, requiring a complicated conceptualization of many potential counterfactuals. Motivated by sociological applications, we develop a simplification scheme—a weighted composite causal effect that allows identification and estimation of effects with a number of possible solutions. Our approach is illustrated via an analysis of the effects of disability on subsequent employment status using panel data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9531.2007.00185.x

Affiliations: 1: University of Michigan

Publication date: 2007-12-01

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