Four alternative but related approaches to empirical evaluation of policy interventions are studied: social experiments, natural experiments, matching methods, and instrumental variables. In each case the necessary assumptions and the data requirements are considered for estimation of a number of key parameters of interest. These key parameters include the average treatment effect, the treatment of the treated and the local average treatment effect. Some issues of implementation and interpretation are discussed drawing on the labour market programme evaluation literature.
Authors
CPP Co-Director
Richard is Co-Director of the Centre for the Microeconomic Analysis of Public Policy (CPP) and Senior Research Fellow at IFS.
Deputy Research Director
Monica is a Deputy Research Director and Professor of Economics at the University of Bristol, with an interest in Labour, Family and Public Economics.
Working Paper details
- DOI
- 10.1920/wp.cem.2002.1002
- Publisher
- IFS
Suggested citation
Blundell, R and Costa Dias, M. (2002). Alternative approaches to evaluation in empirical microeconomics. London: IFS. Available at: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/alternative-approaches-evaluation-empirical-microeconomics-0 (accessed: 24 April 2024).
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