Instrumental quantile regression inference for structural and treatment effect models

We introduce a class of instrumental quantile regression methods for heterogeneous treatment effect models and simultaneous equations models with nonadditive errors,and offer computable methods for estimation and inference. These methods can be used to evaluate the impact of endogenous variables or treatments on the entire distribution of outcomes. We describe an estimator of the instrumental variable quantile regression process and the set of inference procedures derived from it. We focus our discussion of inference on tests of distributional equality, constancy of effects, conditional dominance, and exogeneity. We apply the procedures to characterize the returns to schooling in the U.S. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.