A distributional synthetic control method for policy evaluation
Journal
JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMETRICS
Journal Volume
35
Journal Issue
5
Pages
505-525
Date Issued
2020
Author(s)
Abstract
We extend the synthetic control method to evaluate the distributional effects of policy intervention in the possible presence of poor matching. The counterfactuals (or intervention effects) are identified by matching a vector of pre-intervention quantile residuals of the treated unit and a convex combination of its potential-control counterparts. The residuals are orthogonal to a set of observable common factors that control for the potentially poor matching. We also apply our method to a set of case studies that explore the distributional effects of state-level minimum-wage hikes in the USA.
Subjects
STATES
SDGs
Publisher
WILEY
Type
journal article