[2207.11890] Misclassification in Difference-in-differences Models Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Search arXiv Press Enter to search · Advanced search Economics > Econometrics arXiv:2207.11890 (econ) [Submitted on 25 Jul 2022 ( v1 ), last revised 30 Apr 2026 (this version, v3)] Title: Misclassification in Difference-in-differences Models Authors: Augustine Denteh , Désiré Kédagni View a PDF of the paper titled Misclassification in Difference-in-differences Models, by Augustine Denteh and D\'esir\'e K\'edagni View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: The difference-in-differences (DID) design is one of the most popular methods used in empirical economics research. However, there is almost no work examining what the DID method identifies in the presence of a misclassified treatment variable. This paper studies the identification of treatment effects in DID designs when the treatment is misclassified. Misclassification arises in various ways, including when the timing of a policy intervention is ambiguous or when researchers need to infer treatment from auxiliary data. We show that the DID estimand is biased and recovers a weighted average of the average treatment effects on the treated (ATT) in two subpopulations -- the correctly classified and misclassified groups. In some cases, the DID estimand may yield the wrong sign and is otherwise attenuated. We provide bounds on the ATT when the researcher has access to information on the extent of misclassification in the data. We demonstrate our theoretical results using simulations and provide two empirical applications to guide researchers in performing sensitivity analysis using our proposed methods. Subjects: Econometrics (econ.EM) ; Methodology (stat.ME) Cite as: arXiv:2207.11890 [econ.EM] (or arXiv:2207.11890v3 [econ.EM] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2207.11890 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Augustine Denteh [ view email ] [v1] Mon, 25 Jul 2022 03:37:10 UTC (229 KB) [v2] Sat, 30 Jul 2022 11:25:41 UTC (213 KB) [v3] Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:10:24 UTC (358 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Misclassification in Difference-in-differences Models, by Augustine Denteh and D\'esir\'e K\'edagni View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Current browse context: econ.EM < prev | next > new | recent | 2022-07 Change to browse by: econ stat stat.ME References & Citations NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs . Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax ( What is MathJax? ) We gratefully acknowledge support from our major funders , member institutions , , and all contributors. About · Help · Contact · Subscribe · Copyright · Privacy · Accessibility · Operational Status (opens in new tab) Major funding support from