F1ID 4110 - Impact Evaluation

Over the past 20 years, experimental economics and randomized control trials have gained increasing popularity both in the research and operational development world. It reached its peak in 2019 when Ester Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee received the Nobel Prize in Economics for their work on using experimental economics to alleviate poverty.

The goal of this course is to provide students with the tools to understand impact evaluation theory, its impact on development and how it can be leveraged to build sound evidence based development policies.

The first half of the course will focus on key experimental designs used to evaluate the impact of development projects or policies. The second part of the course will look at the role impact evaluations plays in economic debates, how they are implemented in practice and slowly embraced by international organizations such as the World Bank or the UN.

Learning Outcomes

• Understanding and knowledge of the core concepts of impact evaluation and Randomized experiments
• Practical knowledge related to the implementation of an impact evaluation in the field
• Learning the scientific literature on a topic of choice
• Knowledge of the influence of impact evaluations on development economics

Professional Skills

Analytical skills, scientific paper reading and literature review, oral skills, statistical skills, team work

There is no specific prerequisite for this course.

General feedback will be provided to students after the test, at the beginning of the following class.

Individual written feedback are also provided with the research paper summary.

Feedback on oral presentations are provided right after students’ presentations, during class time.

There will be three different assessment:

• Half way through the course, there will be a short test focusing on key concepts (30% of final grade)
• A one-pager summary of a research paper of choice, to be sent by the end of the course (30% of final grade)
• Group presentations during the last two classes (40% of final grade)

• Attendance: 2 hours a week / 24 hours a semester
• Online learning activities: 0 hours a week / 0 hours a semester
• Reading and Preparation for Class: 2 hours a week / 24 hours a semester
• Research and Preparation for Group Work: 1 hours a week / 12 hours a semester