Institution: World Bank

E-mail: Ksubbarao@worldbank.org

Biosummary:

K. Subbarao is a principal economist in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network of the World Bank. He holds a Ph.D. from the Delhi School of Economics, India. He has authored or co-authored six books and several research papers and monographs in three areas: efficiency and distributional impacts of agricultural market interventions, gender and development, and on safety nets and poverty-targeted programs. He is the principal author of a recent World Bank publication entitled Safety Net Programs and Poverty Reduction: Lessons from Cross-Country Experience. At the World Bank, he is currently leading a program team that promotes evaluation of poverty reduction impacts of program/project interventions.

Title: "Impact evaluation: A Note on Concepts and Methods." Co-authors: Kene Ezemenari, Anders Rudqvist.

Theme: 4A

Abstract:

This paper reviews the key concepts and tools available to do sound impact evaluation. It begins with the question and basic organizing principle for any good evaluation of an intervention, viz., what would have happened in the absence of the intervention. The paper then proceeds to elaborate the evaluation problem (section 2), and outlines the methods of dealing with endogeneity (section 3). The implications of the various methodologies for information and data are discussed in section 4. Some issues in combining quantitative and qualitative approaches to evaluation are reviewed in section 5. The various ways in which principles of sound evaluation can be incorporated in a project cycle are outlined in section 6. It is hoped that this section will be helpful for any institution implementing projects in developing countries. The concluding section is devoted to issues in mainstreaming evaluation in international institutions and donor agencies.