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Methods: General textbooks in econometrics recommended for program impact evaluation

• Microeconometrics: Methods and Applications
• Micro-Econometrics for Policy, Program, and Treatment Effects
• Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for generalized causal inference
• Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data
• NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH - SUMMER INSTITUTE 2007 - What's New in Econometrics?
• Gertler, P.J. Martinez, S. Premand, P. Rawlings, L.B. & Vermeersch, C.M.J., (2011), Impact Evaluation in Practice, The World Bank, Washington DC.

Methods: Background reading

• Empirical Strategies in Labor Economics
• Alternative approaches to evaluation in empirical microeconomics
• Evaluating the Impact of Education on Earnings in the UK: Models, Methods and Results from the NCDS
• Using Randomization in Development Economics Research: A Toolkit
• The Art of Labormetrics
• The Economics and Econometrics of Active Labor Market Programs
• Recent Developments in the Econometrics of Program Evaluation
• The Standard Error of Regressions
• Evaluating Conditional Schooling and Health Programs
• The Mystery of the Vanishing Benefits: Ms. Speedy Analyst's Introduction to Evaluation
• Evaluating Anti-Poverty Programs
• A Critical Survey of Empirical Methods for Evaluating Active Labor Market Policies
• Evaluating Local Economic Development Policies: Theory and Practice
• Evaluating Social Programs with Endogenous Program Placement and Selection of the Treated
• Heckman, James J. 2001. "Micro Data, Heterogeneity, and the Evaluation of Public Policy: Nobel Lecture." Journal of Political Economy 109(4): 673-748.
• Baker, Judy. 2000. Evaluating the Impact of Development Projects on Poverty: A Handbook for Practitioners. Directions in Development, World Bank, Washington, D.C.
• Banerjee, Abhijit V. and Duflo, Esther (2009). "The Experimental Approach to Development Economics
• Leeuw, Frans and Vaessen, Jos (2009). "Impact Evaluations and Development: NONIE Guidance on Impact Evaluation". NONIE, Washington D.C.

Methods: Social experiments

• The Case for Randomized Field Trials in Economic and Policy Research
• Using Randomization in Development Economics Research: A Toolkit
• Randomization and Social Policy Evaluation
• Assessing the Case for Social Experiments
• Making the Most Out of Programme Evaluations and Social Experiments: Accounting for Heterogeneity in Programme Impacts
• Substitution and Drop Out Bias in Social Experiments: A Study of an Influential Social Experiment
• Statistics and Causal Inference
• Identification and Estimation of Local Average Treatment Effects
• Learning More from Social Experiments: Evolving Analytic Approaches
• Social Experiments: Evaluating Public Programs With Experimental Methods

Methods: Non-experimental

General Matching
 

• Using Multivariate Matched Sampling and Regression Adjustment to Control Bias in Observational Studies
• Large Sample Properties of Matching Estimators for Average Treatment Effects
• Finite Sample Properties of Semiparametric Estimators of Average Treatment Effects
• Some Practical Guidance for the Implementation of Propensity Score Matching
• On the Role of the Propensity Score in Efficient Semiparametric Estimation of Average Treatment Effects
• Matching as an Econometric Evaluation Estimator: Evidence from Evaluating a Job Training Program
• Efficient Estimation of Average Treatment Effects Using the Estimated Propensity Score
• Evaluating the Econometric Evaluations of Training Programs Using Experimental Data
• Reducing Bias in Observational Studies Using Subclassification on the Propensity Score
• The Central Role of the Propensity Score in Observational Studies for Causal Effects,
• Reconciling Conflicting Evidence on the Performance of Propensity Score Matching Methods
• Nonparametric Estimation of Average Treatment Effects under Exogeneity: A Review

Assumptions on Matching
 

Multiple Treatments  
 

• The Role of the Propensity Score in Estimating Dose-Response Functions,
• Identification and Estimation of Causal Effects of Multiple Treatments Under the Conditional Independence Assumption
• Program Heterogeneity and Propensity Score Matching: An Application to the Evaluation of Active Labor Market Policies

Matching in a Dynamic Context
 

• Analyzing the Effect of Dynamically Assigned Treatments Using Duration Models, Binary Treatment Models and Panel Data Models
• Program Evaluations and Random Program Starts
• An Evaluation of the Swedish System of Active Labor Market Programs in the 1990s

 

• How Robust is the Evidence on the Effects of College Quality? Evidence from Matching
• Practical Propensity Score Matching: A Reply to Smith and Todd
• III-2) Selection on unobservables

Longitudinal Methods
 

• Model Sensitivity In Panel Data Analysis: Some Caveats About the Interpretation of Fixed Effects and Differences Estimators,

 

Combining Longitudinal with Matching
 

 

Instrumental Variables
 

Regression Discontinuity Design
 

Control Function
 

Methods: Others

IV-1) Ex ante evaluations

• Heckman, James J. (2000), "Causal Parameters and Policy Analysis in Economics: A Twentieth Century Retrospective," Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115, 45-97.
• Hurwicz, Leonid (1962), "On the Structural Form of Interdependent Systems," Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, edited by Ernest Nagel, Pattrick Suppes and Alfred Tarski. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.
• Ichimura, Hidehiko and Christopher Taber (2002), "Semiparametric Reduced-Form Estimation of Tuition Subsidies," American Economic Review, 92, 286-92.  
• Lise, Jeremy, Seitz, Shannon, and Jeffrey Smith, (2003), "Equilibrium Policy Experiments and the Evaluation of Social Programs," working paper.
• Lumsdaine, Robin, James Stock and David Wise, (1992), "Pension Plan Provisions and Retirement: Men and Women, Medicare, and Models," D. A. Wise (ed.) Studies in the Economics of Aging, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Marschak, Jacob (1953), "Economic Measurements for Policy and Prediction," William Hood and Tjalling Koopmans, eds., Studies in Econometric Method, New York: John Wiley, 1-26.
• McFadden, Daniel, Antti Talvitie and Associates, (1977), "Validation of Disaggregate Travel Demand Models: Some Tests," Urban Demand Forecasting Project, Final Report, Volume V, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Berkeley.
• Ex Ante Evaluation of Social Programs
• Wise, David, (1985), "A Behavioral Model Verses Experimentation: The Effects of Housing Subsidies on Rent," Methods of Operations Research, 50, Verlag Anton Hain.  

IV-2) Quantile treatment effects

• IZA Discussion paper 3638.

IV-3) Bounds    

• Horowitz, Joel and Charles Manski, (1995), "Censoring of Outcomes and Regressors Due to Survey Nonresponse: Identification and Estimation Using Weights and Imputations," Working Paper No. 9525, Wisconsin Madison - Social Systems.
• Trimming For Bounds On Treatment Effects With Missing Outcomes

IV-3) Partial equilibrium and structural models  

 

IV-4): General equilibrium evaluation

• Estimating the Return to Training and Occupational Experience: The Case of Female Immigrants
• Heckman, James J., Lance Lochner, and Christopher Taber. 1998. "General-Equilibrium Treatment Effects: A Study of Tuition Policy." The American Economic Review 88(2): 381-86.

 

IV-5) Miscelaneous

Applications: Social experiments

• Bruhn, Miriam and David McKenzie. 2008. "In pursuit of balance: randomization in practice in development field experiments," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4752, The World Bank
• Angrist, J. Bettinger, E. Bloom, E. King, E. and Kremer, M. ,(2002), Vouchers for Private Schooling in Colombia: Evidence from a Randomized Natural Experiment. American Economic Review, 92, 1535-1558
• S. Khandker, G. Koolwal and H. Samad, (2009), "Handbook on Impact Evaluation: Quantitative Methods and Practices", World Bank, October 2009

Applications: Non-experimental Methods

II-1) Selection on observables

II-1)-a) Matching methods

• Jalan, Jyotsna and Martin Ravallion, (2003). "Estimating the Benefit Incidence of an Antipoverty Program by Propensity-Score Matching," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, 21, 19-30

 
II-2) Selection on unobservables

1. Longitudinal Methods

• Donohue, John, III and Steven, Levitt, (2001) "The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime." Quarterly Journal of Economics, 116, 379-420
• Duflo, Esther, (2001), Schooling and labor market consequences of school construction in Indonesia: evidence from an unusual policy experiment, American Economic Review 91, 795-813.
• Galiani, Sebastian., Gertler, Paul y Schargrodsky, Ernesto, (2005). Water for Life: The Impact of the Privatization of Water Services on Child Mortality. Journal of Political Economy, 113, 83-120

      

2. Instrumental Variables

 

3. Regression Discontinuity Design