How Much Can We Generalize From Impact Evaluations?

Resource type
Journal Article
Author/contributor
Title
How Much Can We Generalize From Impact Evaluations?
Abstract
Impact evaluations can help to inform policy decisions, but they are rooted in particular contexts and to what extent they generalize is an open question. I exploit a new data set of impact evaluation results and find a large amount of effect heterogeneity. Effect sizes vary systematically with study characteristics, with government-implemented programs having smaller effect sizes than academic or non-governmental organization-implemented programs, even controlling for sample size. I show that treatment effect heterogeneity can be appreciably reduced by taking study characteristics into account.
Publication
Journal of the European Economic Association
Volume
18
Issue
6
Pages
3045-3089
Date
2020-12-16
Journal Abbr
Journal of the European Economic Association
ISSN
1542-4766
Accessed
28/12/2023, 18:06
Library Catalogue
Silverchair
Citation
Vivalt, E. (2020). How Much Can We Generalize From Impact Evaluations? Journal of the European Economic Association, 18(6), 3045–3089. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvaa019