Browsing by Subject "Impact evaluation"
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Item Evaluating service supply in conditional cash transfers(2015-05) Sabat Pereyra, Nadia Melina; Heinrich, Carolyn J.; Linden, Leigh L., 1975-Conditional cash transfers are poverty reduction mechanisms that seek to increase demand of social services by combining an income effect with a health or education requirement. This demand-side strategy relies on a tacit assumption about the quality of and access to those services as a path to improve human capital outcomes. Some conditional cash transfers have included supply-side complementary incentives to ensure that services are suitable to deliver a good education and better health. This study reviews the existing evidence on the impact of supply-side incentives in the context of conditional cash transfers. The review finds that a limited number of studies estimate effects of supply in human capital outcomes and only a few impact evaluations consider the role of schools or health centers in enabling access. The evaluations revised find no evidence that supply side interventions coupled with conditional cash transfers directly improve program outcomes. Nonetheless, several studies highlight the relevance of school organization, in terms of school modalities and student/teacher ratios in school enrollment and attendance. Impact estimations as well as the implementation of the supply-side programs also signal the need for a more nuanced understanding of how school management influences a variety of schooling outcomes. In general, the small number of impact estimations and the restricted set of variables used limits the generalizability of the results. For this reason, a principal conclusion of the review is the need for further research on the topic, as well as consistency across impact measures and a more in-depth analysis of school supply and their influence on learning outcomes.Item Randomized controlled trials to evaluate impact : their challenges and policy implications for medicine, education, and international development(2012-12) Kahlert, Rahel C.; Ward, Peter M., 1951-; Treisman, Uri; Galbraith, James; Osborne, Cynthia; Roberts, BryanPolicy makers in education and international development have lately gravitated toward the randomized controlled trial (RCT)—an evaluation design that randomly assigns a sample of people or households into an intervention group and a control group in order to measure the differential effect of the intervention—as a means to determine program impact. As part of federal regulations, the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Agency for International development explicitly declared a preference for the RCT. When advocating for adopting the RCT model as the preferred evaluation tool, policy makers point to the success story of medical trials and how they revolutionized medicine from Medieval charlatanry to a modern life-saving discipline. By presenting a more nuanced account of the role of the RCT in medical history, however, this study finds that landmark RCTs were accompanied with challenges, Evidence-Based Medicine had rightful critics, and opportunistic biases in drug trials apply equally to education policy and international development. This study also examines the recent privileged role of the RCT in education and international development, concluding that its initial promise was not entirely born out when put into practice, as the national Reading First Initiative exemplifies. From a comparative perspective, the RCT movements also encountered major RCT critics, whose voices were not initially heard. These voices, however, seem to have contributed to a swing of the pendulum away from RCT primacy back towards greater methodological pluralism. A major conclusion of this study is that policy makers should exercise great caution when using RCTs as a policy evaluation tool. This conclusion is arrived at via considering RCT biases, challenges, and limited generalizability; understanding its interpretive-qualitative components; and broadening the overall methodological repertoire to better enable evaluations of macro-policy interventions.Item Three Essays on Impact Evaluation of Public Policies(2015-03-03) Sanchez, Gonzalo EduardoThis dissertation analyzes the impact of three public policies. Each essay attempts to identify the effects of a specific public policy using different methods. The first studies the effect of low-cost intervention on tax compliance. To overcome confounding factors, I use a regression discontinuity design that exploits a discrete increase in the probability of receiving a non-compliance notification. Results indicate that the notification significantly increases taxes paid by around $1,400, or 70 percent. These findings indicate that inexpensive tax compliance interventions can be used effectively by tax authorities in low-income countries. The second essay studies data collected in a field experiment that provides information to households to promote conservation of electricity. Households received one of three different information interventions: (1) make a price notch salient, (2) make a social comparison, or (3) do both. Results corresponding to households with historical consumption above the notch indicate that the social comparison information reduces consumption by around 1%, and that the price salience information effect is not statistically significant. These findings imply that the social comparison treatment was more effective in promoting conservation. However, there is also suggestive evidence that the effect of the price salience treatment exists for households who were just above the notch, whereas the effect of the social comparison is significant for both households who were just above and well above the notch. The results suggest that similar interventions could be used in longer term projects to promote conservation and reduce the fiscal burden of electricity subsidies. The last essay examines the effect of the Arizona Immigration Law of 2010 (SB 1070) on the noncitizen Hispanic state population. Results indicate that this bill produced a significant reduction in the proportion of Hispanic noncitizens living in Arizona estimated to be between 10% and 16%. However, this effect lasted less than one year, as the evidence suggests that it vanishes after a few months. The findings imply that the response of the undocumented population facing higher risk of deportation is to quickly move out. The findings also suggest that when that risk diminishes, the undocumented population tends to increase.