Shift-Share Designs: Theory and Inference

Abstract We study inference in shift-share regression designs, such as when a regional outcome is regressed on a weighted average of sectoral shocks, using regional sector shares as weights. We conduct a placebo exercise in which we estimate the effect of a shift-share regressor constructed with ran...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Quarterly journal of economics 2019-11, Vol.134 (4), p.1949-2010
Main Authors: Adão, Rodrigo, Kolesár, Michal, Morales, Eduardo
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Abstract We study inference in shift-share regression designs, such as when a regional outcome is regressed on a weighted average of sectoral shocks, using regional sector shares as weights. We conduct a placebo exercise in which we estimate the effect of a shift-share regressor constructed with randomly generated sectoral shocks on actual labor market outcomes across U.S. commuting zones. Tests based on commonly used standard errors with 5% nominal significance level reject the null of no effect in up to 55% of the placebo samples. We use a stylized economic model to show that this overrejection problem arises because regression residuals are correlated across regions with similar sectoral shares, independent of their geographic location. We derive novel inference methods that are valid under arbitrary cross-regional correlation in the regression residuals. We show using popular applications of shift-share designs that our methods may lead to substantially wider confidence intervals in practice.
ISSN:0033-5533
1531-4650
DOI:10.1093/qje/qjz025