PLCY 110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Operationalization, Social Integration, Academic Term
Document Summary
Primary way to get feedback on design for research paper. Good examples of one piece of the paper. Policy issue and response: an issue area that you"re interested in, and policy or policies to address it. Comparative case study: 2-4 similar units, at least of which received the policy. Difference in difference design: evidence on outcomes in all case countries before and after the policy was enacted. Goal of paper: address causal impact of policy. Alternative universe where whatever your cause is didn"t happen and look at outcomes. Estimate of what the outcome would have been for a program participant in the absence of the program. Hard to come up with valid counterfactuals. Cases similar at baseline on outcomes and contextual factors. Only difference between cases is policy (treatment) Policy randomly assigned to one case (or group of cases) Cases have the same experiences during period of study. What makes a valid counterfactual in the real world.
