How the (Econometric) Sausage is Made

In one of the greatest movies ever made, Miracle Max says: "Turns out your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. See, mostly dead is still slightly alive." Well, there is a lesson to be learned. In econometrics, many parameters that one might consider to be unidentified are only MOSTLY unidentified. And, following Miracle Max's unassailable logic, mostly unidentified is still slightly identified.  Miracle Max continues to share his wisdom with us mere mortals when he says that with "ALL dead, there is only one thing you can do ... go through his pockets and look for loose change." With ALL unidentified, I suppose all we can do is thank our academy for a lovely run and turn off the lights on our way out.   But, what do we do when confronted with mostly unidentified parameters? Well, that's where partial identification -- played here by Miracle Manski -- enters the scene. Partial identification econometric techniques existed before Manski, but ...