An impact evaluation assesses a programs performance in attaining welldefined objectives against an. Martin ravallion many more impact evaluations could be done, and at lower unit cost, if evaluators could avoid the need for baseline data using objective socioeconomic surveys and rely instead on retrospective subjective questions on how outcomes have changed, asked postintervention. Martin ravallion is with the development economics research group at the world bank. Finally, the chapter discusses the ethical concerns about evaluation. The authors find that impact estimates are quite sensitive to the choice of. Martin ravallion direct interventions in poor places.
Estimating the benefit incidence of an antipoverty program. Expost evaluation of an antipoverty program policy research working paper series, the world bank view citations 2 household welfare impacts of chinas accession to the world trade organization policy research working paper series, the world bank view citations 6 in measuring aggregatesocial efficiency. Martin ravallion and will martin, was critical for developing the lgaf. Explains poverty in a way that is interesting to people with or without a background in economics. Ravallion, martin, evaluating antipoverty programs june 1, 2005.
Standard methods of impact evaluation often leave significant gaps between what we know about development effectiveness. Learning about the effectiveness of what is done to reduce poverty is not easy, and mistakes are made, both rejecting good efforts and accepting bad ones. Speedy analysts introduction to evaluation july 1999. Martin ravallion has spent over 30 years working on poverty, with his career as the leading expert on the topic at the world bank more recently augmented by his more recent position as a professor at georgetown which has involved teaching an undergraduate class on the topic. The paper assumes that readers are familiar with basic statistics up to regression analysis as would be covered. Ravallion, martin 1999 the mystery of the vanishing benefits. The mystery of the vanishing benefits an introduction to impact evaluation authorseditors. Martin ravallion emanuela galasso teodoro lazo ernesto philipp abstract we propose a method for estimating the mean impact of an assigned social program when it is not feasible to do a preintervention baseline survey but it is feasible to track exparticipants.
Martin ravallion, the mystery of the vanishing benefits. Randomized impact evaluations o ther n o a dmiz s c o u n t o f p u b l i s h e d i m p a c t e v a l u a t i o n s note. Is a household survey necessary, and is it a reliable guide. For helpful comments the author is grateful to sabina alkire, kathleen beegle, rui manuel coutinho. Second, while standard methods of impact evaluation are useful, they often leave. Analyst learns the strengths and weaknesses of the main methods of ex post impact evaluation. You are cordially invited to the 2016 wider annual lecture by martin ravallion. Ms speedy analysts introduction to evaluation, world bank policy. Outline of principles of impact evalation discussion dra. Martin ravallion direct interventions against poverty in. Chapter 5 assessing the poverty impact of an assigned. We thank daniel lederman, martin ravallion, and participants at the december 2010 workshop on. Development research group, world bank 1818 h street nw, washington dc, 20433, usa.
Impact evaluation assesses the changes that can be attributed to a particular intervention, such as a project, program or policy, both the intended ones, as well as ideally the unintended ones. See footnote 4 in the main text on likely undercounting of nonrandomized ies in earlier years. There has been an expansion of analytic effort by economists and others to improve knowledge about the effectiveness of both specific antipoverty policies and the distributional implications of a broader range of policies. An introduction to impact evaluation martin ravallion this article provides an introduction to the concepts and methods of impact evaluation.
Estimating the benefit incidence of an antipoverty program by propensity score matching jyotsna jalan and martin ravallion 1 indian statistical institute and world bank 1 address for correspondence. Impact evaluation provides a measure of aid effectiveness, that is how good. That assumption must be deemed highly implausible in this setting. If we are serious about assessing development impact then we will have to be more interventionist about what gets evaluated and more pragmatic and eclectic in how that is done. Villani chair in economics, georgetown university, washington dc this book offers a timely and most needed contribution to the field of evaluation. Is that right, or is the true impact being hidden somehow. The discussion then turns to the generic evaluation problem and how it is addressed in practice. Ravallion discusses the challenges of household surveys as the dominant source of poverty data and the limitations of householdlevel data. Thoroughly synthesizes the economics at play in poverty.
In contrast to outcome monitoring, which examines whether targets have been achieved, impact evaluation is structured to answer the question. Evaluating antipoverty programs by martin ravallion ssrn. Fitted lines are nearest neighbor smoothed scatter plots. An impact evaluation assesses a programs performance in attaining wellde. Martin ravallion department of economics, georgetown university, washington dc, usa. Staff of the international initiative for impact evaluation kindly provided an update to their database on published impact evaluations and helped with the authors questions. The article takes the form of a short story about a fictional characters. The economics of poverty history, measurement, and policy martin ravallion.
Department of economics, georgetown university, washington dc, usa 20057. Ms speedy analysts introduction to evaluation martin ravallion world bank this paper aims to provide an introduction to the concepts and methods of impact evaluation. In contrast to outcome monitoring, which examines whether. Impact evaluation is an assessment of the impact of an intervention on final. Martin ravallion development research group, the world bank, 1818 h street, nw, washington, dc 20433, usa contents abstract 3788 keywords 3788 1. This article provides an introduction to the concepts and methods of impact evaluation. Direct interventions against poverty in poor places martin ravallion wider annual lecture 20 wider. Evaluation in the practice of development by martin ravallion ssrn. The developing worlds bulging but vulnerable middle class, policy research working paper series 4816, the world bank. This entertaining introduction to the concepts and methods of impact evaluation as seen through the eyes of ms. It will also feed into the handbook on impact evaluation under preparation, jointly with lacpr.
Overview of impact evaluation page 2 an impact evaluation should only be undertaken when its intended use can be clearly identified and when it is likely to be able to produce useful findings, taking into account the availability of resources and the timing of decisions about the programme or policy under investigation. He also identifies some drawbacks of impact evaluation, many of which are experienced by practitioners, such as the ethical issues with randomised implementation of development programs. Ravallion and chen 2003 equals the ordinary rate of growth times a. Poverty assessments are typically clouded in conceptual and methodological uncertainties. This note will be a part section 2 of a position paper on impact evaluation under preparation. International initiative for impact evaluation 3ie.
Matching impact evaluation design to the nature of the. A primer martin ravallion development research group, world bank. Imagine how much more we could learn about development impact if we did not need baseline data. The article takes the form of a short story about a fictional characters on.
Chronic poverty and pervasive risks poverty is pervasive. What can exparticipants reveal about a program s impact. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The economics of poverty paperback martin ravallion. There are 2 versions of this paper evaluating antipoverty programs. Evaluating antipoverty programs world bank documents. Martin ravallion is director of the world banks development research group. Ifad and afdb impact evaluation guidelines strongly espouse a theorybased approach. Next, some broader issues about learning from evaluations are examined, and what other methods might be needed as a complement to standard methods in practice. Session 1 impact evaluation methodologies impact evaluation workshop, lilongwe, dec. Evaluation in the practice of development citeseerx. The authors also benefited from the discussion in a meeting of the poverty reduction board held on december 16, 1998. Recent developments in the econometrics of impact evaluation imbens and wooldrige.
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