English

Optimal Decision Rules when Payoffs are Partially Identified

Econometrics 2025-12-19 v4 Methodology

Abstract

We derive asymptotically optimal statistical decision rules for discrete choice problems when payoffs depend on a partially-identified parameter θ\theta and the decision maker can use a point-identified parameter μ\mu to deduce restrictions on θ\theta. Examples include treatment choice under partial identification and pricing with rich unobserved heterogeneity. Our notion of optimality combines a minimax approach to handle the ambiguity from partial identification of θ\theta given μ\mu with an average risk minimization approach for μ\mu. We show how to implement optimal decision rules using the bootstrap and (quasi-)Bayesian methods in both parametric and semiparametric settings. We provide detailed applications to treatment choice and optimal pricing. Our asymptotic approach is well suited for realistic empirical settings in which the derivation of finite-sample optimal rules is intractable.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2204.11748,
  title  = {Optimal Decision Rules when Payoffs are Partially Identified},
  author = {Timothy Christensen and Hyungsik Roger Moon and Frank Schorfheide},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2204.11748},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-24T10:57:57.954Z