Impact Evaluation
Treatment Effects and Causal Analysis

Encompasses the main concepts and approaches of quantitative impact evaluations, used to consider the effectiveness of programmes, policies, projects or interventions.

Markus Frölich (Author), Stefan Sperlich (Author)

9781107042469, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 March 2019

428 pages, 73 b/w illus.
25.3 x 17.8 x 2.4 cm, 1 kg

'This book is extremely useful for anyone who wants to learn (more) about the field of quantitative impact evaluation in social sciences. Apart from providing a rigourous treatment of both identification and estimation, the authors are to be commended for clearly stating the assumptions behind the various methods, and also for cautioning against limitations in practical applications. A further benefit of the book is the introduction of causal graphs for impact evaluation in econometrics. In sum, a highly recommended book that surely will have a significant impact.' Michael Wolf, Universität Zürich

In recent years, interest in rigorous impact evaluation has grown tremendously in policy-making, economics, public health, social sciences and international relations. Evidence-based policy-making has become a recurring theme in public policy, alongside greater demands for accountability in public policies and public spending, and requests for independent and rigorous impact evaluations for policy evidence. Frölich and Sperlich offer a comprehensive and up-to-date approach to quantitative impact evaluation analysis, also known as causal inference or treatment effect analysis, illustrating the main approaches for identification and estimation: experimental studies, randomization inference and randomized control trials (RCTs), matching and propensity score matching and weighting, instrumental variable estimation, difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity designs, quantile treatment effects, and evaluation of dynamic treatments. The book is designed for economics graduate courses but can also serve as a manual for professionals in research institutes, governments, and international organizations, evaluating the impact of a wide range of public policies in health, environment, transport and economic development.

1. Basic definitions, assumptions, and randomized experiments
2. An introduction to nonparametric identification and estimation
3. Selection on observables: matching, regression and propensity score estimators
4. Selection on unobservables: nonparametric IV and structural equation approaches
5. Difference-in-differences estimation: selection on observables and unobservables
6. Regression discontinuity design
7. Distributional policy analysis and quantile treatment effects
8. Dynamic treatment evaluation.

Subject Areas: Economic statistics [KCHS], Econometrics [KCH], Economics [KC]