Summit Releases New Program Evaluation White Paper

June 19, 2017 Eva Palmer

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Today, Summit released a new white paper on estimation designs used in program evaluation.

The paper is written by Dr. Eddie Seiler, Dr. George Cave, Dr. China Layne, and Dr. Shane Thompson. In this white paper, we summarize some of the counterfactual estimation designs used widely by evaluators.

The authors start the paper by discussing randomized controlled trials (RCTs) – the gold standard experimental approach. They discuss what can go wrong with RCTs and why they are rarely used now in complex domestic policy evaluation settings. They then summarize some of the more widely used observational designs, and provide examples of how to implement these methods based on Summit evaluators’ experience. They focus on three methods:

  • Regression discontinuity designs;
  • Difference-in-differences and synthetic controls; and
  • Propensity score matching.

They conclude the paper with a summary table that provides a “cheat-sheet” for these methods.

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