Cardiff University | Prifysgol Caerdydd ORCA
Online Research @ Cardiff 
WelshClear Cookie - decide language by browser settings

Addressing unobserved endogeneity bias in accounting studies: control and sensitivity methods by variable type

Peel, Michael J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7444-390X 2014. Addressing unobserved endogeneity bias in accounting studies: control and sensitivity methods by variable type. Accounting and Business Research 44 (5) , pp. 545-571. 10.1080/00014788.2014.926249

[thumbnail of PEELPAPERABRFINAL.pdf]
Preview
PDF - Accepted Post-Print Version
Download (488kB) | Preview

Abstract

Together with their associated statistical routines, this paper describes the control and sensitivity methods that can be employed by accounting researchers to address the important issue of unobserved (omitted) variable bias in regression and matching models according to the types of variables employed. As with other social science disciplines, an important and pervasive issue in observational (non-experimental) accounting research is omitted variable bias (endogeneity). Causal inferences for endogenous explanatory variables are biased. This occurs in regression models where an unobserved (confounding) variable is correlated with both the dependent (outcome) variable in a regression model and the causal explanatory (often a selection) variable of interest. The Heckman treatment effect model has been widely employed to control for hidden bias for continuous outcomes and endogenous binary selection variables. However, in accounting studies, limited (categorical) dependent variables are a common feature and endogenous explanatory variables may be other than binary in nature. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of contemporary control methods, together with the statistical routines to implement them, which extend the Heckman approach to binary, multinomial, ordinal, count and percentile outcomes and to where endogenous variables take various forms. These contemporary methods aim to improve causal estimates by controlling for hidden bias, though at the price of increased complexity. A simpler approach is to conduct sensitivity analysis. This paper also presents a synopsis of a number of sensitivity techniques and their associated statistical routines which accounting researchers can employ routinely to appraise the vulnerability of causal effects to potential (simulated) unobserved bias when estimated with conventional regression and propensity score matching estimators.

Item Type: Article
Date Type: Publication
Status: Published
Schools: Business (Including Economics)
Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Uncontrolled Keywords: Unobserved bias; control methods; sensitivity techniques; limited dependent variables; endogenous variable types; statistical routines.
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISSN: 0001-4788
Date of First Compliant Deposit: 30 March 2016
Last Modified: 06 Nov 2023 14:36
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/63206

Citation Data

Cited 22 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item Edit Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics