Multiple Discoveries in Causal Inference: LATE for the Party

Abstract

Multiple discoveries in statistics may be more common than many readers realize. We tell a story of multiple discoveries in causal inference related to a quantity called the local average treatment effect (LATE). The development of LATE by Imbens and Angrist contributed greatly to their winning the 2021 Nobel Prize in Economics. We discuss how multiple investigators were either early or late for the “party” of intermediate and final discoveries involving LATE.