Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Microfinance And Home Improvement: Using Retrospective Panel Data To Measure Program Effects On Fundamental Events, Craig Mcintosh, Gonzalo Villaran, Bruce Wydick

Economics

Rigorously estimating the effects of development programs is notoriously difficult. In this paper we present a methodology that borrows from "event studies" commonly used in the finance literature to ascertain the impacts of corporate mergers. In our RETRAFECT methodology a retrospective panel data set is created based on “fundamental” events in the history of surveyed households, events that are discrete, unforgettable, and important to welfare. Based on the relationship between the changes in the estimated probabilities of these events and the timing of the introduction and uptake of a treatment, it is possible to ascertain if the probability of these …