A Review Of Recent Developments In Impact Evaluation

Impact evaluation aims to answer whether and to what extent a development intervention has delivered its intended effects, thus enabling evidence-based policy making. The desire for more hard evidence of the effectiveness of development interventions has fueled a growing interest in rigorous impact evaluation in the international development community. This report discusses the fundamental challenge of impact evaluation, which is to credibly attribute the impact, if any, to the intervention concerned. It then discusses the merits and limitations of various impact evaluation methods. It also presents a survey of recent applications of impact evaluation, focusing on the typical evaluation problems looked at, methods used, and key findings. The report includes six case studies and outlines practical steps in implementing an impact evaluation.

The second edition of the Impact Evaluation in Practice handbook is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to impact evaluation for policy makers and development practitioners. First published in 2011, it has been used widely across the development and academic communities. The book incorporates real-world examples to present practical guidelines for designing and implementing impact evaluations. Readers will gain an understanding of impact evaluations and the best ways to use them to design evidence-based policies and programs. The updated version covers the newest techniques for evaluating programs and includes state-of-the-art implementation advice, as well as an expanded set of examples and case studies that draw on recent development challenges. It also includes new material on research ethics and partnerships to conduct impact evaluation. The handbook is divided into four sections: Part One discusses what to evaluate and why; Part Two presents the main impact evaluation methods; Part Three addresses how to manage impact evaluations; Part Four reviews impact evaluation sampling and data collection. Case studies illustrate different applications of impact evaluations. The book links to complementary instructional material available online, including an applied case as well as questions and answers. The updated second edition will be a valuable resource for the international development community, universities, and policy makers looking to build better evidence around what works in development.

Impact evaluation is an empirical approach to estimating the causal effects of interventions, in terms of both magnitude and statistical significance. Expanded use of impact evaluation techniques is critical to rigorously derive knowledge from development operations and for development investments and policies to become more evidence-based and effective. To help backstop more use of impact evaluation approaches, this book introduces core concepts, methods, and considerations for planning, designing, managing, and implementing impact evaluation, supplemented by examples. The topics covered range from impact evaluation purposes to basic principles, specific methodologies, and guidance on field implementation. It has materials for a range of audiences, from those who are interested in understanding evidence on "what works" in development, to those who will contribute to expanding the evidence base as applied researchers.

Impact evaluations are studies that attempt to measure the causal impact of a project, program or policy on one or more outcomes of. This book provides a comprehensive exposition of how to conduct impact evaluations. Part I provides an overview of impact evaluations and comprises five chapters which are accessible to readers who have few or none of the technical (statistical and econometric) skills that are needed to conduct impact evaluations. Parts II and III make use of statistical and econometric methods and are at a level similar to a graduate-student course but written to make them accessible to the ambitious reader whose skills are not at that level. Part II presents, in Chapters 6-10, a comprehensive discussion of the use of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to conduct impact evaluations, including a general discussion of the ethical issues involved in conducting impact evaluations. Part III presents the main non-experimental methods that are used to implement impact evaluations when RCTs are not feasible or not recommended for other reasons. Chapters 11 and 12 present regression methods, including difference-in-differences estimation. Matching methods are described in Chapter 13, after which regression discontinuity methods are covered in Chapter 14. Instrumental variable methods, including the estimation of local average treatment effects (LATE), are discussed in detail in Chapter 15. Chapters 16 and 17 cover more advanced topics: quantile treatment effects and control function methods, respectively. Part IV then considers more practical issues when conducting impact evaluations, including designing questionnaires (Chapter 18), data collection methods and survey management (Chapters 19 and 20), and disseminating results to policymakers (Chapter 21). Finally, Part V addresses two topics in impact evaluation: qualitative methods for conducting impact evaluations (Chapter 22), and cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis (Chapter 23).

Encompasses the main concepts and approaches of quantitative impact evaluations, used to consider the effectiveness of programmes, policies, projects or interventions. This textbook for economics graduate courses can also serve as a manual for professionals in research institutes, governments, and international organizations.

This report aims to support impact evaluation in the energy sector by assessing what has been produced against what might be possible. It reviews 85 impact evaluations of energy interventions in developing countries, summarizes findings on outcomes, identifies evidence gaps, and proposes ways forward. It notes that impact evaluation has so far focused on rural electrification and improved cookstoves, while most investments are in power generation and transmission. It highlights where future impact evaluation investments can best contribute new evidence and how such studies could be approached.

The recent push for impact measurement has been positive, but it has also led to wasted resources and often misleading data about what works. In The Goldilocks Challenge, Mary Kay Gugerty and Dean Karlan put forth four key principles to guide organizations of all sizes to create strong, "right-fit" data collection systems.

This report aims to support impact evaluation in the energy sector by assessing what has been produced against what might be possible. It reviews 85 impact evaluations of energy interventions in developing countries, summarizes findings on outcomes, identifies evidence gaps, and proposes ways forward. A majority of studies has so far focused on rural electrification and improved cookstoves, while most investments are in power generation and transmission. After considering the body of evidence available, directions and approaches are proposed for future impact evaluations to best contribute new evidence regarding the sector.