Feasible IV regression without excluded instruments

Abstract

Summary The relevance condition of integrated conditional moment (ICM) estimators is significantly weaker than the conventional instrumental variable's in at least two respects: (1) consistent estimation without excluded instruments is possible, provided endogenous covariates are nonlinearly mean-dependent on exogenous covariates, and (2) endogenous covariates may be uncorrelated with but mean-dependent on instruments. These remarkable properties notwithstanding, multiplicative-kernel ICM estimators suffer diminished identification strength, large bias, and severe size distortions even for a moderately sized instrument vector. This paper proposes a computationally fast linear ICM estimator that better preserves identification strength in the presence of multiple instruments and a test of the ICM relevance condition. Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate a considerably better size control in the presence of multiple instruments and a favourably competitive performance in general. An empirical example illustrates the practical usefulness of the estimator, where estimates remain plausible when no excluded instrument is used.