ExtremeBounds: Extreme bounds analysis in R

Abstract

This article introduces the R package ExtremeBounds to perform extreme bounds analysis (EBA), a sensitivity test that examines how robustly the dependent variable of a regression model is related to a variety of possible determinants. ExtremeBounds supports Leamer’s EBA that focuses on the upper and lower extreme bounds of regression coefficients, as well as Sala-i-Martin’s EBA which considers their entire distribution. In contrast to existing alternatives, it can estimate models of a variety of user-defined sizes, use regression models other than ordinary least squares, incorporate non-linearities in the model specification, and apply custom weights and standard errors. To alleviate concerns about the multicollinearity and conceptual overlap of examined variables, ExtremeBounds allows users to specify sets of mutually exclusive variables, and can restrict the analysis to coefficients from regression models that yield a variance inflation factor within a prespecified limit.