Bartik Instruments: What, When, Why, and How
Open accessAbstract
The Bartik instrument is formed by interacting local industry shares and national industry growth rates. We show that the typical use of a Bartik instrument assumes a pooled exposure research design, where the shares measure differential exposure to common shocks, and identification is based on exogeneity of the shares. Next, we show how the Bartik instrument weights each of the exposure designs. Finally, we discuss how to assess the plausibility of the research design. We illustrate our results through two applications: estimating the elasticity of labor supply, and estimating the elasticity of substitution between immigrants and natives. (JEL C51, F14, J15, J22, L60, R23, R32)
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References 31 · Cited by 2,521
- Authors
- Goldsmith-Pinkham, P., Sorkin, I., & Swift, H.
- Affiliations
- Yale University (US)
- National Bureau of Economic Research (US)
- Unaffiliated (email: )
- Venue
- American Economic Review
- Publisher
- American Economic Association
- Published
- 2020-08-01
- Volume
- 110
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 2586-2624
- ISSN
- 0002-8282 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2792018968
- Cited by
- 2,521
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 742 · 2025: 519 · 2024: 390 · 2023: 292 · 2022: 232 · 2021: 162 · 2020: 101 · 2019: 38 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 138.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.nber.org
- Locations
- American Economic Review (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Advanced Causal Inference Techniques
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Spatial and Panel Data Analysis
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › General Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Monetary Policy and Economic Impact
- Keywords
- Bartik instrument, exogeneity, labor supply elasticity, elasticity of substitution, common shocks
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