Culture as a Random Treatment: A Reply to Chou Articles
Overview
published in
- AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW Journal
publication date
- April 2017
start page
- 444
end page
- 450
issue
- 2
volume
- 82
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 0003-1224
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1939-8271
abstract
- In a 2015 ASR article, I introduced SISTER, a new method to estimate the causal effects of culture using migrant populations. Chou raises significant concerns about SISTER and concludes that the method is flawed. I contend that this conclusion is incorrect because it is based on a mischaracterization of the method's identification assumptions. Specifically, Chou disregards that SISTER exploits cultural variation across multiple countries of origin/ancestry as the main source of identification. I argue that SISTER can comply with the IV assumptions precisely because it is a multiple-origin method that conceptualizes culture of birth as a random treatment. I discuss potential threats to the exogeneity condition and offer several recommendations for future applications of the method.
Classification
keywords
- culture; migration; quantitative methods; instrumental variables