HANDBOOK OF LABOR ECONOMICS, VOL 4A

Handbook of Labor Economics, Vol. 4, No. Suppl PA, 2011

ISSN: 1573-4463

doi: 10.1016/S0169-7218(11)00411-4

Chapter 5Program Evaluation and Research Designs

John DiNardo^*, David S. Lee^**

^* University of Michigan and NBER

^** Princeton University and NBER

Abstract

This chapter provides a selective review of some contemporary approaches to program evaluation. One motivation for our review is the recent emergence and increasing use of a particular kind of “program” in applied microeconomic research, the so-called Regression Discontinuity (RD) Design of Thistlethwaite and Campbell (1960). We organize our discussion of these various research designs by how they secure internal validity: in this view, the RD design can been seen as a close “cousin” ...