A Practical Introduction to Regression Discontinuity Designs
Foundations

Provides a practical guide for analysis and interpretation of regression discontinuity (RD) designs with a focus on the canonical sharp RD setup.

Matias D. Cattaneo (Author), Nicolás Idrobo (Author), Rocío Titiunik (Author)

9781108710206, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 13 February 2020

120 pages, 1 b/w illus. 21 colour illus. 7 tables
23 x 15.3 x 0.6 cm, 0.26 kg

In this Element and its accompanying second Element, A Practical Introduction to Regression Discontinuity Designs: Extensions, Matias Cattaneo, Nicolás  Idrobo, and Roc?ìo Titiunik provide an accessible and practical guide for the analysis and interpretation of regression discontinuity (RD) designs that encourages the use of a common set of practices and facilitates the accumulation of RD-based empirical evidence. In this Element, the authors discuss the foundations of the canonical Sharp RD design, which has the following features: (i) the score is continuously distributed and has only one dimension, (ii) there is only one cutoff, and (iii) compliance with the treatment assignment is perfect. In the second Element, the authors discuss practical and conceptual extensions to this basic RD setup.

1. Introduction
2. The sharp RD design
3. RD plots
4. The continuity-based approach to RD analysis
5. Validation and falsification of the RD design
6. Final remarks.

Subject Areas: Social research & statistics [JHBC], Society & social sciences [J], Coding theory & cryptology [GPJ]