scholarly journals On the Implications of Essential Heterogeneity for Estimating Causal Impacts Using Social Experiments

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Ravallion
Keyword(s):  
Social Experiments ◽  
Essential Heterogeneity

scholarly journals On the Implications of Essential Heterogeneity for Estimating Causal Impacts Using Social Experiments

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Ravallion
Keyword(s):  
Standard Model ◽  
Least Squares ◽  
Instrumental Variables ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Social Experiments ◽  
Latent Heterogeneity ◽  
The Standard Model ◽  
Essential Heterogeneity

AbstractThe standard model of essential heterogeneity, whereby program take up depends on unobserved costs and benefits of take up, is generalized to allow the source of latent heterogeneity to influence counterfactual outcomes. The standard instrumental variables (IV) estimator is shown to still be preferable to the naïve, ordinary least squares (OLS), estimator for mean impact on the treated. However, under certain conditions, the IV estimate of the overall mean impact will be even more biased than OLS. Examples are given for stylized training, insurance and microcredit schemes.

Economic State and Institutional Environment of Russian Industrial Enterprises: The Empirical Analysis of Interrelations

2005 ◽  
pp. 67-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Kleiner ◽  
R. Kachalov ◽  
E. Sushko
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
The State ◽  
Industrial Enterprises ◽  
Strategic Approach ◽  
Market Situation ◽  
Economic State ◽  
Essential Heterogeneity ◽  
The Empirical Analysis ◽  
Weak Influence

The paper presents the analysis of the data received from the survey of heads of industrial enterprises and also experts-researchers in 2003-2004. The data describe the economic state of enterprises and their position in competitive, administrative, intermediary, financial etc. environment. The assumption of essential heterogeneity of the set of industrial enterprises, including enterprises of the same sector or the same territorial formation is confirmed. It is shown that Russian industrial enterprises as a rule do not feel influence of the stock market situation while the condition of the currency market influences the majority of enterprises. The sensitivity of enterprises depends on their economic situation: the better is the state, the stronger is the influence. Weak influence of the investment and administrative environment on the state of enterprises and negative influence of the activity of intermediary organizations are registered. More than 2/3 of the respondents consider important strengthening of the responsibility of large proprietors for inefficient activity of their enterprises. Lack of the strategic approach in the activity of authorities of all levels is ascertained and the necessity of development and realization of industrial policy at all administrative levels, including the municipal one, is shown.

The Changing Role of Social Experiments in Policy Analysis

1986 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 340 ◽  
Author(s):  
David H. Greenberg ◽  
Philip K. Robins
Keyword(s):  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Social Experiments ◽  
Changing Role

Rethinking Pullman

2000 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-26
Author(s):  
Janice L. Reiff
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Capitalist Society ◽  
Dual Roles ◽  
South Side ◽  
Social Experiments ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The Town

For the residents of the former model town of Pullman, Illinois, 1994 was an important year. In May, 100 years earlier, a strike had broken out that pitted workers at the Pullman Car Works against George M. Pullman and the company that bore his name. Before the strike finally collapsed in August, it shutdown railroad traffic across much of America, brought federal troops into Chicago and cities as far away as Los Angeles, and led to the imprisonment of Eugene V. Debs, the president of the American Railway Union (ARU). It also brought to a close the long-standing debate on the most famous of the company’s social experiments: the model town located on Chicago’s far south side. Since 1880, George Pullman had trumpeted the architecturally and socially crafted town and life inside it as solutions for the problems of urban, industrial America, and large numbers of observers had concurred with that evaluation (Wright 1884; Smith 1995: 177–270; Reiff and Hirsch 1989: 104–6). For almost as long, its critics had excoriated the town as representing the worst excesses of a capitalist society where one man and his company could dominate every aspect of a worker’s life in their dual roles as landlord and employer (Ely 1885; Carwardine 1973 [1894]).

Evaluations of the Effects of Sweden's Spanking Ban on Physical Child Abuse Rates: A Literature Review

1999 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. 381-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E. Larzelere ◽  
Byron Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Child Abuse ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mortality Rates ◽  
Physical Punishment ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Physical Child Abuse ◽  
National Surveys ◽  
Social Experiments ◽  
Pertinent Data ◽  
The Usa

Sweden's 1979 law banning corporal punishment by parents was welcomed by many as a needed policy to help reduce physical abuse of children. This study reviews the published empirical evidence relevant to that goal. Only seven journal articles with pertinent data were located. One study reported that the rate of physical child abuse was 49% higher in Sweden than in the USA, comparing its 1980 Swedish national survey with the average rates from two national surveys in the United States in 1975 and 1985. In contrast, a 1981 retrospective survey of university students suggested that the Swedish abuse rate had been 79% less than the American rate prior to the Swedish spanking ban. Some unpublished evidence suggests that Swedish rates of physical child abuse have remained high, although child abuse mortality rates have stayed low there. A recent Swedish report suggested that the spanking ban has made little change in problematic forms of physical punishment. The conclusion calls for more timely and rigorous evaluations of similar social experiments in the future.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document