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2006.”Do Health Sector Reforms Have Their Intended Impacts? The World
- Bank’s Health VIII Project in Gansu Province
"... The literature contains very few impact evaluations of health sector reforms, especially those involving broad and simultaneous changes on both the demand and supply sides of the sector. This paper reports the results of a World Bank-funded health sector reform project in China known as Health VIII. ..."
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The literature contains very few impact evaluations of health sector reforms, especially those involving broad and simultaneous changes on both the demand and supply sides of the sector. This paper reports the results of a World Bank-funded health sector reform project in China known as Health VIII. On the supply-side, the project combined infrastructure investments (especially at the township level) with improved planning and management, including a referral system between township health centers and county hospitals, and interventions aimed at improving the effectiveness and quality of care, including the introduction of clinical protocols and essential drug lists. On the demand-side, the project sought to resurrect community health insurance, and to introduce a safety net for the very poor to provide them with financial assistance with their health care expenses. The evaluation reported here concerns just one of the project's seven provinces, namely Gansu, the reason being that no suitable data are available to undertake a rigorous evaluation in all provinces. This paper makes use of a panel dataset collected for quite another purpose but whose timing (just around the time the project started and four years later) and location (covering both project and non-project counties) makes it well suited to the task. The paper compares estimates obtained using a variety of different estimators, including naïve single differences (before and after, and with and without the project), and differences in
Workfare in Low Income Countries: An Effective Way to Fight Poverty? The Case of NREGS in India
, 2009
"... This paper analyses the impact of Indias National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) on rural households. In particular, we look at the impact of the program on food security, savings and health outcomes. We have an initial baseline survey data of 1066 house-holds and a subsequent panel data ..."
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This paper analyses the impact of Indias National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) on rural households. In particular, we look at the impact of the program on food security, savings and health outcomes. We have an initial baseline survey data of 1066 house-holds and a subsequent panel data of 320 households from Andhra Pradesh. The panel consists of data from June 2007 to December 2008. We have calculated estimates based on propensity score matching, double di¤erence and triple di¤erence estimates to account for non-random attrition. Our main results indicate that the NREGS improves food security, increases proba-bility of holding savings and reduces anxiety level among low income households. We look at various sub-categories of monthly per capita consumption expenditure. We find that NREGS significantly increases expenditure on non-food consumables (48%) and clothing (43%) but our results are statistically strongest for food amounting to 7 % increase for all households and 15% for the poorest group.
Heterogeneous Impacts of Conditional Cash Transfers: Evidence from
"... In the last decade, the most popular policy tool used to increase human capital in developing countries has been the conditional cash transfer program. A large literature has shown significant mean impacts on schooling, health, and child labor. Given that transfers depend on regular school attendanc ..."
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In the last decade, the most popular policy tool used to increase human capital in developing countries has been the conditional cash transfer program. A large literature has shown significant mean impacts on schooling, health, and child labor. Given that transfers depend on regular school attendance and use of preventive health care services, theory predicts differential effects on household behavior. This paper examines heterogeneous effects using random-assignment data from the Red de Proteccion Social (RPS) in rural Nicaragua. Using interactions between the targeting criteria and the treatment indicator, estimates suggest that children located in more impoverished localities experienced a larger impact of the program on schooling and a small impact on the probability of engaging in labor activities. Estimated quantile treatment effects indicate that the there is considerable heterogeneity in the impacts of RPS on the distribution of total and food expenditures. In particular, households at the lower end of the expenditure distribution experienced a smaller increase in expenditures.
Health Economics for Low-Income Countries
- Handbook of Development Economics
, 2007
"... Notes: Center discussion papers are preliminary materials circulated to stimulate discussion and critical comments. I am very grateful to T. Paul Schultz for guidance in the preparation of this paper. I thank T. N. Srinivasan for providing me with valuable references and Robert Evenson, Christopher ..."
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Notes: Center discussion papers are preliminary materials circulated to stimulate discussion and critical comments. I am very grateful to T. Paul Schultz for guidance in the preparation of this paper. I thank T. N. Srinivasan for providing me with valuable references and Robert Evenson, Christopher Ksoll and John Strauss for helpful comments. Discussions with Tekabe
Assessing the Frontiers of Ultra-Poverty Reduction: Evidence from CFPR/TUP, an Innovative program in
, 2009
"... This paper uses household panel data to provide robust evidence on the effects of BRAC’s Targeting the Ultra-poor Program in Bangladesh. Our identification strategy exploits type-1 errors in assignment, comparing households correctly included with those incorrectly excluded, according to program cri ..."
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This paper uses household panel data to provide robust evidence on the effects of BRAC’s Targeting the Ultra-poor Program in Bangladesh. Our identification strategy exploits type-1 errors in assignment, comparing households correctly included with those incorrectly excluded, according to program criteria. Evidence from difference-in-difference matching and sensitivity analysis shows that participation had significant positive effects on income, food consumption and security, household durables, and livestock, but no robust impact on health, ownership of homestead land, housing quality and other productive assets. Using quantile difference-in-difference, we find that the income gains from program participation is smaller for the lowest two deciles.
GS: Labor market analysis for developing countries. Working papers. Paper 157. 2010 [http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/ workingpapers/157
"... This paper is about analyzing labor markets in developing countries, searching for both improved understanding and greater policy relevance. Following a five-part policy evaluation framework, the highlights of labor markets in developing countries are presented. Theoretical models with multiple sect ..."
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This paper is about analyzing labor markets in developing countries, searching for both improved understanding and greater policy relevance. Following a five-part policy evaluation framework, the highlights of labor markets in developing countries are presented. Theoretical models with multiple sectors and segments and empirical analysis using different kinds of data are then reviewed. A brief concluding section addresses some priority research needs.
Impact analysis of rural electrification projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. The World Bank Research Observer 27(1):33–51
"... The author reviews trends in rural electrification over the past 30 years in Sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, it is shown that motivations for rural electrification programs have evolved significantly over the years, following changes in development paradigms. The author finds, however, that knowl ..."
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The author reviews trends in rural electrification over the past 30 years in Sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, it is shown that motivations for rural electrification programs have evolved significantly over the years, following changes in development paradigms. The author finds, however, that knowledge of the impact of this has only marginally improved: low connection rates and weak productive utilization identified in the 1980s remain true today, and impacts on such dimensions as health, education, or income, though often used to justify projects, are largely undocumented. Indeed impact evaluations are methodologi-cally challenging in the field of infrastructures and have been limited thus far. Nevertheless examples of recent or ongoing impact evaluations of rural electrification programs offer promising avenues for identifying both the effect of electricity per se and the relative effec-tiveness of approaches to promoting it. JEL codes: N77, O18, O20 The last few years have witnessed a renewed interest in infrastructure develop-ment in Sub-Saharan Africa. Following years of macroeconomic structural adjust-ment programs, it is now estimated that the continent’s low infrastructure development is responsible for a 2 percent shortfall in economic growth per country. Particularly important are the growing concerns with the continent’s low power generation and distribution capacities. In its latest report on infrastruc-ture development in the region, the World Bank (2009) calls for $930 billion to be invested over 10 years in the continent’s infrastructure, of which nearly half should be dedicated to the power sector. In fact, despite similar levels in the 1980s, Sub-Saharan Africa’s electricity generation capacity per inhabitant is now one-tenth of that in South and East Asia, and electricity coverage is only 40 percent. Within the power sector, rural electrification (RE) remains particularly
Matching the Gold Standard: Comparing Experimental and Nonexperimental Evaluation Techniques for a Geographically Targeted Program. Economic Development and Cultural
- Change
, 2010
"... Abstract: We compare non-experimental impact estimates based on matching methods with those from a randomized evaluation to determine whether the non-experimental approach can "match" the so-called gold standard. The social experiment we use was carried out to evaluate a geographically ta ..."
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Abstract: We compare non-experimental impact estimates based on matching methods with those from a randomized evaluation to determine whether the non-experimental approach can "match" the so-called gold standard. The social experiment we use was carried out to evaluate a geographically targeted conditional cash transfer antipoverty program in Nicaragua. The outcomes we assess include several components of household expenditure and a variety of children's health outcomes including breast feeding, vaccinations, and morbidity. We find that using each of the following improves performance of matching for these outcomes: 1) geographically proximate comparison samples; 2) stringent common support requirements; and 3) both geographic-and household-level matching variables. Even for a geographically targeted program, in which the selection is at the geographic-, rather than at the individual-or householdlevel, and in which it is not possible to find comparison individuals or households in the program locales, matching can perform reasonably well. The results also suggest that the techniques may be more promising for evaluating the more easily measured individual-level binary outcomes, than for outcomes that are more difficult to measure, such as expenditure. 4
2010/16 A Survey of Impact Evaluation of Infrastructure Projects, Programs and Policies
, 2010
"... A survey of impact evaluations of infrastructure projects, programs and policies ..."
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A survey of impact evaluations of infrastructure projects, programs and policies
Evaluating Rural Electrification Projects: Methodological Approaches
- Well‐Being and Social Policy
, 2009
"... n recent years, the international community has expanded efforts in program evaluation to improve the accountability of development projects. This paper presents approaches to implementing state of the art evaluations in rural electrification projects, taking into account specific challenges that re ..."
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n recent years, the international community has expanded efforts in program evaluation to improve the accountability of development projects. This paper presents approaches to implementing state of the art evaluations in rural electrification projects, taking into account specific challenges that researchers face in such interventions. It suggests an approach to assess impacts before an intervention is implemented by surveying the yet non-electrified target region of the project and, in addition, an already electrified region. Besides delivering robust evidence on impacts, results from such ex-ante evaluations deliver insights for the project design, thereby reducing the gap between evaluation researchers and practitioners. I
