The Use of Structural Models in Econometrics

摘要

Structural economic models are at the heart of empirical economic analysis, offering an organizing principle for understanding data, for testing theory, for analyzing mechanisms through which interventions operate, and for simulating counterfactuals. It has been long understood that econometric identification of such models will necessarily depend on prior assumptions and on theory; but without the organizing device of theory, it is impossible to make progress in our understanding. We argue that the resurgence and increased popularity of the idea of combining randomized experiments or plausible quasi-experimental variation together with structural economic models can strengthen the value of empirical work substantially. Indeed, researchers should think more ambitiously and use theory to define experiments that need to be run to test and estimate important models.