{"id":220,"date":"2025-04-10T07:58:24","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T07:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.endogeneity.net\/?page_id=220"},"modified":"2026-04-04T14:35:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T14:35:30","slug":"curing-endogeneity","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.endogeneity.net\/?page_id=220","title":{"rendered":"Trying to Cure Endogeneity"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 fusion-flex-container has-pattern-background has-mask-background nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--link_hover_color: var(--awb-color5);--link_color: var(--awb-color5);--awb-background-blend-mode:multiply;--awb-border-color:var(--awb-color1);--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-padding-top:50.156000000000006px;--awb-padding-bottom:0px;--awb-padding-top-small:70px;--awb-padding-right-small:40px;--awb-padding-bottom-small:0px;--awb-padding-left-small:40px;--awb-margin-bottom-medium:0px;--awb-margin-bottom-small:60px;--awb-background-color:#ffffff;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-center fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1248px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-padding-bottom-medium:0px;--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:85px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-small:44px;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1 fusion-text-no-margin\" style=\"--awb-content-alignment:center;--awb-text-color:var(--awb-color1);--awb-margin-right:15%;--awb-margin-bottom:0px;--awb-margin-left:15%;\"><p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Trying to Cure Endogeneity<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #000000; text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">When prevention strategies such as rich controls, fixed effects, latent controls, temporal separation, and measurement error correction have been implemented and sensitivity analysis still suggests a credible endogeneity threat, researchers can attempt to correct the remaining bias. These methods replace one set of untestable assumptions with another, so they should be treated as a last resort, not a first instinct.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>No Free Lunch<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #000000; text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">IV and copula-based approaches each trade one untestable assumption for another. IV approaches replace the assumption that the predictor is exogenous with the exclusion restriction (the instrument has no direct effect on the outcome). Copula correction replaces the same assumption with distributional and dependence assumptions about unobservables.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #000000; text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Neither approach eliminates the fundamental challenge: Both require careful conceptual justification, and neither can guarantee that endogeneity has been fully resolved.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Descriptive Positioning\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">When neither credible identification nor triangulation with experiments is possible, researchers should consider pivoting to carefully framed descriptive questions that avoid causal claims altogether. Well-executed descriptive work contributes by establishing empirical regularities that subsequent causal research must explain. This is especially valuable in rapidly evolving domains, such as digital markets, platform economies, AI-mediated consumer interactions where documenting what is happening must precede understanding why.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"100-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-220","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.endogeneity.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.endogeneity.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.endogeneity.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.endogeneity.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.endogeneity.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=220"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.endogeneity.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":499,"href":"https:\/\/www.endogeneity.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/220\/revisions\/499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.endogeneity.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}