Relaxing Monotonicity in the Identification of Local Average Treatment Effects

In heterogeneous treatment effect models with endogeneity, the identification of the local average treatment eect (LATE) typically relies on an instrument that satisfies two conditions: (i) joint independence of the potential post-instrument variables and the instrument and (ii) monotonicity of the treatment in the instrument, see Imbens and Angrist (1994). We show that identification is still feasible when replacing monotonicity by a strictly weaker local monotonicity condition (given marginal potential outcomes). We demonstrate that the latter allows identifying the LATEs on the (i) compliers (whose treatment reacts to the instrument in the intended way), (ii) defiers (who react counter-intuitively), and (iii) both populations jointly. Furthermore, (i) and (iii) coincides with standard LATE if monotonicity holds. We also present an application to the quarter of birth instrument of Angrist and Krueger (1991).

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