NONPARAMETRIC INSTRUMENTAL VARIABLE ESTIMATION

OF QUANTILE STRUCTURAL EFFECTS

GAGLIARDINI, P. *, and SCAILLET, O. **

* University of Lugano and Swiss Finance Institute ** Université de Genève and Swiss Finance Institute

 

Abstract

We study the asymptotic distribution of Tikhonov Regularized estimation of quantile structural effects implied by a nonseparable model. The nonparametric instrumental variable estimator is based on a minimum distance principle. We show that the minimum distance problem without regularization is locally ill-posed, and consider penalization by the norms of the parameter and its derivatives. We derive pointwise asymptotic normality and develop a consistent estimator of the asymptotic variance. We study the small sample properties via simulation results, and provide an empirical illustration to estimation of nonlinear pricing curves for telecommunications services in the U.S.

Keywords : Quantile Regression, Nonparametric Estimation, Instrumental Variable, Ill-Posed Inverse Problems, Tikhonov Regularization, Nonlinear Pricing Curve.

JEL : C13, C14, D12, G12.

MSC 2000 : 62G08, 62G20, 62P20.