Choosing Who Chooses: Selection‐Driven Targeting in Energy Rebate Programs
提出一种结合可观测特征与自我选择的最优政策分配规则，应用于居民能源回扣随机实验，发现该方法优于传统目标定位，并利用LATE框架揭示自我选择对社会福利的影响机制。
We develop an optimal policy assignment rule that integrates two distinctive approaches commonly used in economics—targeting by observables and targeting through self‐selection . Our method can be used with experimental or quasi‐experimental data to identify who should be treated, be untreated, and self‐select to achieve a policymaker's objective. Applying this method to a randomized controlled trial on a residential energy rebate program, we find that targeting that optimally exploits both observable data and self‐selection outperforms conventional targeting. We use the Local Average Treatment Effect (LATE) framework (Imbens and Angrist (1994)) to investigate the mechanism in our approach. By estimating several key LATEs based on the random variation created by our experiment, we demonstrate how our method allows policymakers to identify whose self‐selection would be valuable and harmful to social welfare.