re:st: pscore question

["Ariel Linden. DrPH" <ariel.linden@gmail.com>]

Daniel,

If you already have a propensity score estimated, you can use psmatch2" (a
user written program by Edwin Leuven and Barbara Sianesi). This program
allows you to use an existing propscore and it will conduct the necessary
tests of balance on covariates.

You also asked about blocking - there is another program that naturally
"blocks", but is flexible enough to allow you to generate your own blocks.
This program is called "cem" [Coarsened Exact Matching], a user-written
program by Matthew Blackwell and Gary King at Harvard.

Given what you are trying to do, I would probably prefer to use propensity
score-based weighting over matching. Austin Nichols wrote a nice paper on
that " Erratum and discussion of propensity-score reweighting" in 
Stata Journal  8(4):532--539

I hope this helps, and good luck!

Ariel


From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
[mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Dan Kimmel
Sent: 8. februar 2011 19:12
To: statalist
Subject: st: pscore question

I'm working on a project predicting the effect of exposure to violence
on the health of American high school students.  I am attempting to
use propensity score analysis to make causal inference about the
treatment effect; however, because these students are nested within
schools which vary in their mean level of violence, I have predicted
the propensity scores using Hierarchical Linear Modeling software.

My question is: Is there a way to use Becker and Ichino's pscore
program for STATA to distribute the students into blocks and check
that the balancing property is met -- but to do so using propensity
scores that have already been calculated, rather than by allowing the
program to calculate them itself?  And if not, could such a function
be devised?

Thanks!
- --
Daniel M. Kimmel
Department of Sociology
University of Chicago

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