Monotonicity

The instrumental-variables assumption that the instrument moves everyone’s treatment status in the same (weak) direction — there are no “defiers” who do the opposite. Together with independence and the Exclusion-Restriction, monotonicity is what lets IV identify a clean weighted average of effects, the LATE; without it the IV estimand can mix effects with offsetting signs. A close analogue appears in changes-in-changes and fuzzy DiD, where a latent index is assumed monotone.

Relied on by

Instrumental variables (IV), fuzzy RD, changes-in-changes, fuzzy DiD.

Referenced by