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Research report

A review of causal mediation analysis for assessing direct and indirect treatment effects

BP2-STS

    01.01.2019

42

Mediation
direct effect
indirect effect
sequential conditional independence
instrument
English Mediation analysis aims at evaluating the causal mechanisms through which a treatment or intervention affects an outcome of interest. The goal is to disentangle the total treatment effect into an indirect effect operating through one or several observed intermediate variables, the so-called mediators, as well as a direct effect reflecting any impact not captured by the observed mediator(s). This paper reviews methodological advancements with a particular focus on applications in economics. It defines the parameters of interest, covers various identification strategies, e.g. based on control variables or instruments, and presents sensitivity checks. Furthermore, it discusses several extensions of the standard mediation framework, such as multivalued treatments, mismeasured mediators, and outcome attrition.
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Faculty
Faculté des sciences économiques et sociales et du management
Language
  • English
Classification
Economics
Other electronic version

Faculté SES

Series statement
  • Working Papers SES ; 500
License
License undefined
Identifiers
  • RERO DOC 323800
  • RERO R008885061
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/307412
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