Inference based on cluster-robust standard errors is known to fail when the number of clusters is small, and the wild cluster bootstrap fails dramatically when the number of treated clusters is very small. We propose a family of new procedures called the sub- cluster wild bootstrap. In the case...

The cluster robust variance estimator (CRVE) relies on the number of clusters being large. The precise meaning of 'large' is ambiguous, but a shorthand 'rule of 42' has emerged in the literature. We show that this rule depends crucially on the assumption of equal-sized clusters. Monte Carlo...

Reliable inference with clustered data has received a great deal of attention in recent years. The overwhelming majority of this research assumes that the cluster structure is known. This assumption is very strong, because there are often several possible ways in which a dataset could be...

We study a cluster-robust variance estimator (CRVE) for regression models with clustering in two dimensions that was proposed in Cameron, Gelback, and Miller (2011). We prove that this CRVE is consistent and yields valid inferences under precisely stated assumptions about moments and cluster...

Inference for estimates of treatment effects with clustered data requires great care when treatment is assigned at the group level. This is true for both pure treatment models and difference-in-differences regressions. Even when the number of clusters is quite large, cluster-robust standard...

When there are few treated clusters in a pure treatment or difference-in-differences setting, t tests based on a cluster-robust variance estimator (CRVE) can severely over-reject. Although procedures based on the wild cluster bootstrap often work well when the number of treated clusters is not...

The wild bootstrap was originally developed for regression models with heteroskedasticity of unknown form. Over the past thirty years, it has been extended to models estimated by instrumental variables and maximum likelihood, and to ones where the error terms are (perhaps multi-way) clustered....