TY - JOUR
T1 - Alternative approaches to evaluation in empirical microeconomics
T2 - Journal of Human Resources
AU - Costa-Dias, Monica
AU - Blundell, Richard
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - This paper reviews a range of the most popular policy evaluation methods in empirical microeconomics: social experiments, natural experiments, matching methods, instrumental variables, discontinuity design and control functions. It discusses the identification of both the traditionally used average parameters and more complex distributional parameters. In each case, the necessary assumptions and the data requirements are considered. The adequacy of each approach is discussed drawing on the empirical evidence from the education and labor market policy evaluation literature. We also develop an education evaluation model which we use to carry through the discussion of each alternative approach. A full set of STATA datasets are provided free online which contain Monte-Carlo replications of the various specifications of the education evaluation model. There are also a full set of STATA .do files for each of the estimation approaches described in the paper. The .do-files can be used together with the datasets to reproduce all the results in the paper.
AB - This paper reviews a range of the most popular policy evaluation methods in empirical microeconomics: social experiments, natural experiments, matching methods, instrumental variables, discontinuity design and control functions. It discusses the identification of both the traditionally used average parameters and more complex distributional parameters. In each case, the necessary assumptions and the data requirements are considered. The adequacy of each approach is discussed drawing on the empirical evidence from the education and labor market policy evaluation literature. We also develop an education evaluation model which we use to carry through the discussion of each alternative approach. A full set of STATA datasets are provided free online which contain Monte-Carlo replications of the various specifications of the education evaluation model. There are also a full set of STATA .do files for each of the estimation approaches described in the paper. The .do-files can be used together with the datasets to reproduce all the results in the paper.
KW - natural experiments
KW - social experiments
KW - Evaluation methods
KW - matching
KW - instrumental variables
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=67849102029&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3368/jhr.44.3.565
DO - 10.3368/jhr.44.3.565
M3 - Review article (Academic Journal)
VL - 44
SP - 565
EP - 640
JO - Journal of Human Resources
JF - Journal of Human Resources
SN - 0022-166X
IS - 3
ER -