IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/evarev/v38y2014i4p309-335.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Socioeconomic Impact Assessment in Ex Ante Evaluations

Author

Listed:
  • Pablo Vidueira
  • José M. Díaz-Puente
  • María Rivera

Abstract

Background: Ex ante impact assessment has become a fundamental tool for effective program management, and thus, a compulsory task when establishing a new program in the European Union (EU). Objective: This article aims to analyze benefits from ex ante impact assessment, methodologies followed, and difficulties encountered. This is done through the case study on the rural development programs (RDPs) in the EU. Results regarding methodologies are then contrasted with the international context in order to provide solid insights to evaluators and program managing authorities facing ex ante impact assessment. Research design: All European RDPs from the period 2007 through 2013 (a total of 88) and their corresponding available ex ante evaluations (a total of 70) were analyzed focusing on the socioeconomic impact assessment. Results: Only 46.6% of the regions provide quantified impact estimations on socioeconomic impacts in spite of it being a compulsory task demanded by the European Commission (EC). Recommended methods by the EC are mostly used, but there is a lack of mixed method approaches since qualitative methods are used in substitution of quantitative ones. Two main difficulties argued were the complexity of program impacts and the lack of needed program information. Conclusions: Qualitative approaches on their own have been found as not suitable for ex ante impact assessment, while quantitative approaches—such as microsimulation models—provide a good approximation to actual impacts. However, time and budgetary constraints make that quantitative and mixed methods should be mainly applied on the most relevant impacts for the program success.

Suggested Citation

  • Pablo Vidueira & José M. Díaz-Puente & María Rivera, 2014. "Socioeconomic Impact Assessment in Ex Ante Evaluations," Evaluation Review, , vol. 38(4), pages 309-335, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:evarev:v:38:y:2014:i:4:p:309-335
    DOI: 10.1177/0193841X14552357
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0193841X14552357
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0193841X14552357?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Howard White, 2009. "Theory-based impact evaluation: principles and practice," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(3), pages 271-284.
    2. Leite, Phillippe & Narayan, Ambar & Skoufias, Emmanuel, 2011. "How do ex ante simulations compare with ex post evaluations ? evidence from the impact of conditional cash transfer programs," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5705, The World Bank.
    3. Hidehiko Ichimura & Christopher Taber, 2002. "Semiparametric Reduced-Form Estimation of Tuition Subsidies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(2), pages 286-292, May.
    4. Orazio P. Attanasio & Costas Meghir & Ana Santiago, 2012. "Education Choices in Mexico: Using a Structural Model and a Randomized Experiment to Evaluate PROGRESA," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(1), pages 37-66.
    5. Kenneth I. Wolpin & Petra E. Todd, 2006. "Assessing the Impact of a School Subsidy Program in Mexico: Using a Social Experiment to Validate a Dynamic Behavioral Model of Child Schooling and Fertility," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1384-1417, December.
    6. Patricia Rogers, 2009. "Matching impact evaluation design to the nature of the intervention and the purpose of the evaluation," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(3), pages 217-226.
    7. Peter Midmore, 1998. "Rural Policy Reform and Local Development Programmes: Appropriate Evaluation Procedures," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(3), pages 409-426, September.
    8. Ranjeeta Thomas, 2012. "Conditional Cash Transfers To Improve Education And Health: An Ex Ante Evaluation Of Red De Protección Social, Nicaragua," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(10), pages 1136-1154, October.
    9. Hidehiko Ichimura & Christopher R. Taber, 2000. "Direct Estimation of Policy Impacts," NBER Technical Working Papers 0254, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. James J. Heckman, 2001. "Micro Data, Heterogeneity, and the Evaluation of Public Policy: Nobel Lecture," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 109(4), pages 673-748, August.
    11. Soren Blomquist & Whitney Newey, 2002. "Nonparametric Estimation with Nonlinear Budget Sets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(6), pages 2455-2480, November.
    12. Shahidur R. Khandker & Gayatri B. Koolwal & Hussain A. Samad, 2010. "Handbook on Impact Evaluation : Quantitative Methods and Practices," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2693.
    13. White, Howard, 2009. "Theory-Based Impact Evaluation," 3ie Publications 2009-3, International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie).
    14. Fabian Bornhorst, 2009. "How Good Are Ex Ante Program Evaluation Techniques? The Case of School Enrollment in PROGRESA," IMF Working Papers 2009/187, International Monetary Fund.
    15. Mazzocchi, Mario & Ragona, Maddalena & Zanoli, Agostina, 2013. "A fuzzy multi-criteria approach for the ex-ante impact assessment of food safety policies," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 177-189.
    16. James J. Heckman, 2000. "Causal Parameters and Policy Analysis in Economics: A Twentieth Century Retrospective," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(1), pages 45-97.
    17. FranÁois Bourguignon & Francisco H. G. Ferreira & Phillippe G. Leite, 2003. "Conditional Cash Transfers, Schooling, and Child Labor: Micro-Simulating Brazil's Bolsa Escola Program," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 17(2), pages 229-254, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Petra E. Todd & Kenneth I. Wolpin, 2008. "Ex Ante Evaluation of Social Programs," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 91-92, pages 263-291.
    2. George Planiteros, 2022. "Reverse matching for ex-ante policy evaluation," DEOS Working Papers 2206, Athens University of Economics and Business.
    3. Gwenolé Le Velly & Céline Dutilly, 2016. "Evaluating Payments for Environmental Services: Methodological Challenges," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(2), pages 1-20, February.
    4. Kitaura, Koji & Miyazawa, Kazutoshi, 2021. "Inequality and conditionality in cash transfers: Demographic transition and economic development," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 276-287.
    5. Charle Augusto Londoño Henao, 2020. "Cost-Efficiency Index of the Development Plan of Medellín, 2015," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 335-367, November.
    6. Henrik Hansen & Ole Winckler Andersen & Howard White, 2011. "Impact evaluation of infrastructure interventions," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(1), pages 1-8.
    7. Brollo, Fernanda & Kaufmann, Katja Maria & Ferrara, Eliana La, 2017. "Learning about the Enforcement of Conditional Welfare Programs: Evidence from Brazil," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 317, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    8. James J. Heckman, 2010. "Building Bridges between Structural and Program Evaluation Approaches to Evaluating Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(2), pages 356-398, June.
    9. Pablo Sanabria & Paula Cuéllar & Alejandra Rodas & Mauricio Astudillo & Sebastián Estrada & Juan Sebastián González, 2016. "Guía de evaluación. ¿Cómo evaluar la efectividad de una política que busque hacer estratégica la gestión del talento humano en el sector público colombiano?," Documentos de trabajo 17668, Escuela de Gobierno - Universidad de los Andes.
    10. Sebastian Galiani & Juan Pantano, 2021. "Structural Models: Inception and Frontier," NBER Working Papers 28698, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. André Decoster & Pieter Vanleenhove, 2012. "In-Work Tax Credits in Belgium :An Analysis of the Jobkorting Using a Discrete Labour Supply Model," Brussels Economic Review, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 55(2), pages 121-150.
    12. Omar Galárraga & Sandra Sosa-Rubí & César Infante & Paul Gertler & Stefano Bertozzi, 2014. "Willingness-to-accept reductions in HIV risks: conditional economic incentives in Mexico," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 15(1), pages 41-55, January.
    13. Orazio Attanasio & Sarah Cattan & Emla Fitzsimons & Costas Meghir & Marta Rubio-Codina, 2020. "Estimating the Production Function for Human Capital: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Colombia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(1), pages 48-85, January.
    14. Jose Cuesta & Jon Jellema & Lucia Ferrone, 2021. "Fiscal Policy, Multidimensional Poverty, and Equity in Uganda: A Child-Lens Analysis," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(3), pages 427-458, June.
    15. Eugenio Zucchelli & Andrew M Jones & Nigel Rice, 2012. "The evaluation of health policies through dynamic microsimulation methods," International Journal of Microsimulation, International Microsimulation Association, vol. 5(1), pages 2-20.
    16. Kabeer, Naila, 2020. "‘Misbehaving’ RCTs: The confounding problem of human agency," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    17. Pierre Cahuc & Stéphane Carcillo & Thomas Le Barbanchon, 2019. "The Effectiveness of Hiring Credits," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 86(2), pages 593-626.
    18. Schorfheide, Frank & Wolpin, Kenneth I., 2016. "To hold out or not to hold out," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 332-345.
    19. Stéphane Bonhomme & Martin Weidner, 2020. "Minimizing Sensitivity to Model Misspecification," CeMMAP working papers CWP37/20, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    20. Johnson, Nancy L. & Atherstone, Christine & Grace, Delia, 2015. "The potential of farm-level technologies and practices to contribute to reducing consumer exposure to aflatoxins: A theory of change analysis:," IFPRI discussion papers 1452, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:evarev:v:38:y:2014:i:4:p:309-335. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.