restat-identification

• SKILL.mdcore · 6,569 bytes

# Identification & Measurement Strategy (restat-identification)

## When to trigger

- A causal claim rests on OLS + controls, or TWFE on staggered timing
- An IV's exclusion restriction or first-stage strength is contestable
- An RD's continuity / manipulation assumptions are not yet defended
- A shift-share / exposure design's exogeneity (shares vs shocks) is unargued
- The outcome or key regressor is **measured with error**, or you built a **new measure/index**

## The REStat identification-and-measurement bar

REStat is **applied econometrics with a measurement tradition**, so two things are judged together: the **mapping from data to the causal object** must be explicit and defended, **and** the **quality of measurement** behind every variable must be credible. A clean design on a badly measured construct does not clear the bar; neither does a beautifully measured variable in a hopelessly confounded regression. Report **standard errors and modern inference**; clustering at the assignment level; address attenuation and other measurement-error biases head-on — REStat referees raise measurement objections sibling journals sometimes wave through.