Impact Evaluation
Course Description
This workshop will discuss techniques for impact evaluation using secondary data. After a description of the randomised controlled trials, the workshop will give an overview of regression discontinuity designs, instrumental variables, and difference-in-difference methods. Particular attention will be paid to the recent developments in difference-in-difference methods that account for heterogeneous effects of policies that roll-out at different times.
Course Outline
Measuring Impact
- Definition and objectives of impact evaluation
- Why impact evaluation is crucial in policy assessment
Defining the program theory
- Causal chain of impact
- Directed Acyclical Graphs (DAGs)
Causal Treatment Effect
- Counterfactual Framework
- The problem of confounding
- Randomised Control Trials
Impact evaluation using secondary data
- Instrumental Variables (IV)
- Regression Discontinuity Designs (RDD)
- Difference-in-Difference (DiD) Methods
- Accounting for Heterogeneous Effects