Essays in Impact Evaluation for Development

Essays in Impact Evaluation for Development PDF Author: Markus Olapade
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Essays in Impact Evaluation for Development

Essays in Impact Evaluation for Development PDF Author: Markus Olapade
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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The Impact Evaluation of Cluster Development Programs

The Impact Evaluation of Cluster Development Programs PDF Author: Alessandro Maffioli
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781597822534
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Essays on Impact Evaluation in Labor and Development Economics

Essays on Impact Evaluation in Labor and Development Economics PDF Author: Garret Smyth Christensen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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This dissertation studies examples of applied econometrics for causal inference in labor and development economics. One of the fundamental problems in applied fields of economics is causal inference. Merely observing that event B occurred after event A is not enough to claim that A caused B. The field of economics, and the social sciences in general, are limited by ethics and practicality in their ability to conduct randomized field experiments, the gold standard for causality in other fields. Several statistical methods have been devised to obtain causal estimates from "natural" or "quasi" experimental settings--settings where plausibly exogenous variation in a treatment effect of interest can be found and exploited to produce an unbiased estimate of causal effects. Some of these methods include panel data with fixed effects, nearest-neighbor matching, and regression discontinuity. This dissertation explores applications of these econometric methods, as well as an actual randomized controlled trial, in issues of labor and development economics. The first chapter uses panel data, and causal estimates are identified using a series of fixed effects to control for unmeasurable characteristics that could be correlated with both dependent and independent variables. The subject matter is the recruiting task of the United States military, which is the largest employer in the nation and spends over $4 billion each year to recruit roughly 200,000 new soldiers to maintain its troop levels. This recruiting task has become more expensive since the beginning of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I use a detailed new dataset of all US military applicants over several recent years and find that deaths in Iraq of US soldiers had a significant deterrent effect on recruiting in the home county of the soldiers who were killed. The deterrent effect of local deaths is significantly larger than the deterrent from a death from outside the county. The deterrent exhibits significant heterogeneity across characteristics of deaths, recruits, and locations. Deaths from Iraq decrease recruiting, while deaths from Afghanistan actually increase recruiting. Recruits with higher test scores are more deterred by deaths, and the deterrent is larger and more negative in less populous and more racially diverse counties, but is significantly smaller and in many cases even positive in counties that voted for George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election. The findings provide strong evidence that recruits are over-emphasizing local information and have war-specific tastes and preferences that makes enlistment decisions more complicated than a full-information utility-maximization model of risk and monetary compensation would predict. The second chapter uses nearest-neighbor matching techniques to look at performance of Major League Baseball players after they win awards in order to shed light on the more general question of how rational agents perform after they have been rewarded for good behavior up to that point. Comparing individual player's performance after winning major awards to their performance before winning shows that although players do perform significantly better in the year in which they win the award, performance after the award is generally indistinguishable from pre-award performance. Matching methods based on both baseball writer voting and performance statistics also indicate the likely absence of any sort of "curse" from winning awards for the winners themselves, their teams, and their teammates. The third chapter, which is co-authored work with Michael Kremer and Edward Miguel, uses data from a randomized controlled trial, the Girls Scholarship Program (GSP), as well as the Kenya Life Panel Survey (KLPS) to conduct three types of analysis of bursary programs. We evaluate the effect of different targeting rules for secondary school scholarships, we estimate the impact of attending a primary school that took part in a scholarship program, and we estimate the effect of winning a scholarship from the program. Giving scholarships based on KCPE alone would lead to under representation of children whose parents have no secondary education and girls relative to their proportion of the population. Distributing the scholarships to the top students in each school as opposed to each district does little to alleviate this discrepancy. Analysis of the medium-run impacts of the Girls Scholarship Program, gave largely inconclusive but suggestive evidence that there were moderate benefits from attending a scholarship program school on the order of one half of the benefits observed in the original study held immediately after the scholarship program. The evidence indicates that scholarship winners did not benefit greatly from the award itself.

Essays on the Theory-based Impact Evaluation of Projects in Developing Countries

Essays on the Theory-based Impact Evaluation of Projects in Developing Countries PDF Author: Marc Hansen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Developing countries
Languages : en
Pages :

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Impact Evaluation in International Development

Impact Evaluation in International Development PDF Author: Paul Glewwe
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464814988
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 544

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Book Description
Impact evaluations are studies that attempt to measure the causal impact of a project, program or policy on one or more outcomes of. This book provides a comprehensive exposition of how to conduct impact evaluations. Part I provides an overview of impact evaluations and comprises five chapters which are accessible to readers who have few or none of the technical (statistical and econometric) skills that are needed to conduct impact evaluations. Parts II and III make use of statistical and econometric methods and are at a level similar to a graduate-student course but written to make them accessible to the ambitious reader whose skills are not at that level. Part II presents, in Chapters 6-10, a comprehensive discussion of the use of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to conduct impact evaluations, including a general discussion of the ethical issues involved in conducting impact evaluations. Part III presents the main non-experimental methods that are used to implement impact evaluations when RCTs are not feasible or not recommended for other reasons. Chapters 11 and 12 present regression methods, including difference-in-differences estimation. Matching methods are described in Chapter 13, after which regression discontinuity methods are covered in Chapter 14. Instrumental variable methods, including the estimation of local average treatment effects (LATE), are discussed in detail in Chapter 15. Chapters 16 and 17 cover more advanced topics: quantile treatment effects and control function methods, respectively. Part IV then considers more practical issues when conducting impact evaluations, including designing questionnaires (Chapter 18), data collection methods and survey management (Chapters 19 and 20), and disseminating results to policymakers (Chapter 21). Finally, Part V addresses two topics in impact evaluation: qualitative methods for conducting impact evaluations (Chapter 22), and cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis (Chapter 23).

Impact Assessment for Development Agencies

Impact Assessment for Development Agencies PDF Author: Chris J. R. Roche
Publisher: Oxfam
ISBN: 9780855984182
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
This book considers the process of impact assessment and shows how and why it needs to be integrated into all stages of development programmes. In-depth case studies are included and show a variety of approaches.

Impact Evaluation of Development Interventions

Impact Evaluation of Development Interventions PDF Author: Howard White
Publisher: Asian Development Bank
ISBN: 9292610597
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
Impact evaluation is an empirical approach to estimating the causal effects of interventions, in terms of both magnitude and statistical significance. Expanded use of impact evaluation techniques is critical to rigorously derive knowledge from development operations and for development investments and policies to become more evidence-based and effective. To help backstop more use of impact evaluation approaches, this book introduces core concepts, methods, and considerations for planning, designing, managing, and implementing impact evaluation, supplemented by examples. The topics covered range from impact evaluation purposes to basic principles, specific methodologies, and guidance on field implementation. It has materials for a range of audiences, from those who are interested in understanding evidence on "what works" in development, to those who will contribute to expanding the evidence base as applied researchers.

The Impact Evaluation of Cluster Development Programs

The Impact Evaluation of Cluster Development Programs PDF Author: Franco Boneu
Publisher: Inter-American Development Bank
ISBN: 159782254X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
Do cluster development programs work? Do they fundamentally encourage the essential inter-firm linkages and coordination? Do they lead to innovation and productivity, enterprise development, larger employment, and export growth, and if so, after how long? Do other firms benefit from these programs? This book offers insight into quantitative methods that help answer these questions. Cluster development is a form of modern industrial policy that is spreading across the world to help exploit the externalities emerging from geographical agglomeration and inter-firm coordination. Therefore, rigorous impact evaluations are necessary because they help policymakers understand better ways to design future programs and provide accountability for public resources. The chapters argue that enterprise clusters and the programs to support them are diverse and multidimensional processes that require a variety of instruments to be fully understood and assessed. The book as a whole gathers various methodological essays and quantitative tests of complementary tools and approaches, emphasizing their usefulness and effectiveness in coordination with one another. Most importantly, it asserts that policy evaluation is crucial, in particular when it comes to cluster development programs, to ensure the best use of public resources, the accountability of beneficiaries, and most of all to feed the necessary learning to improve the design and implementation of public policies for enterprise development.

Evaluation in the Practice of Development

Evaluation in the Practice of Development PDF Author: Martin Ravallion
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Economic development
Languages : en
Pages : 35

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Impact Evaluation in Practice, Second Edition

Impact Evaluation in Practice, Second Edition PDF Author: Paul J. Gertler
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464807809
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
The second edition of the Impact Evaluation in Practice handbook is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to impact evaluation for policy makers and development practitioners. First published in 2011, it has been used widely across the development and academic communities. The book incorporates real-world examples to present practical guidelines for designing and implementing impact evaluations. Readers will gain an understanding of impact evaluations and the best ways to use them to design evidence-based policies and programs. The updated version covers the newest techniques for evaluating programs and includes state-of-the-art implementation advice, as well as an expanded set of examples and case studies that draw on recent development challenges. It also includes new material on research ethics and partnerships to conduct impact evaluation. The handbook is divided into four sections: Part One discusses what to evaluate and why; Part Two presents the main impact evaluation methods; Part Three addresses how to manage impact evaluations; Part Four reviews impact evaluation sampling and data collection. Case studies illustrate different applications of impact evaluations. The book links to complementary instructional material available online, including an applied case as well as questions and answers. The updated second edition will be a valuable resource for the international development community, universities, and policy makers looking to build better evidence around what works in development.