This publication presents tools and techniques for measuring service delivery in health and education and people's experiences from the field in deploying these methods. It begins by providing an introduction to the different methodological tools available for evaluating the performance of the health and education sectors. Country specific experiences are then explored to highlight lessons on the challenges, advantages and disadvantages of using different techniques to measure quality in a variety of different contexts and of using the resulting data to affect change. This book is a valuable resource for those who seek to enhance capacity for the effective measurement of service delivery in order to improve accountability and governance and enhance the quality of service delivery in developing countries.
Have gaps in health outcomes between the poor and better off grown? Are they larger in one country than another? Are health sector subsidies more equally distributed in some countries than others? Are health care payments more progressive in one health care financing system than another? What are catastrophic payments and how can they be measured? How far do health care payments impoverish households? Answering questions such as these requires quantitative analysis. This in turn depends on a clear understanding of how to measure key variables in the analysis, such as health outcomes, health expenditures, need, and living standards. It also requires set quantitative methods for measuring inequality and inequity, progressivity, catastrophic expenditures, poverty impact, and so on. This book provides an overview of the key issues that arise in the measurement of health variables and living standards, outlines and explains essential tools and methods for distributional analysis, and, using worked examples, shows how these tools and methods can be applied in the health sector. The book seeks to provide the reader with both a solid grasp of the principles underpinning distributional analysis, while at the same time offering hands-on guidance on how to move from principles to practice.
Impact evaluations are studies that attempt to measure the causal impact of a project, program or policy on one or more outcomes of. This book provides a comprehensive exposition of how to conduct impact evaluations. Part I provides an overview of impact evaluations and comprises five chapters which are accessible to readers who have few or none of the technical (statistical and econometric) skills that are needed to conduct impact evaluations. Parts II and III make use of statistical and econometric methods and are at a level similar to a graduate-student course but written to make them accessible to the ambitious reader whose skills are not at that level. Part II presents, in Chapters 6-10, a comprehensive discussion of the use of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to conduct impact evaluations, including a general discussion of the ethical issues involved in conducting impact evaluations. Part III presents the main non-experimental methods that are used to implement impact evaluations when RCTs are not feasible or not recommended for other reasons. Chapters 11 and 12 present regression methods, including difference-in-differences estimation. Matching methods are described in Chapter 13, after which regression discontinuity methods are covered in Chapter 14. Instrumental variable methods, including the estimation of local average treatment effects (LATE), are discussed in detail in Chapter 15. Chapters 16 and 17 cover more advanced topics: quantile treatment effects and control function methods, respectively. Part IV then considers more practical issues when conducting impact evaluations, including designing questionnaires (Chapter 18), data collection methods and survey management (Chapters 19 and 20), and disseminating results to policymakers (Chapter 21). Finally, Part V addresses two topics in impact evaluation: qualitative methods for conducting impact evaluations (Chapter 22), and cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis (Chapter 23).
A segunda edição do livro Avaliação de Impacto na Prática é uma introdução completa e acessível ao mundo das avaliações de impacto para os formuladores de políticas públicas e os profissionais do desenvolvimento. Publicado pela primeira vez em 2001, este livro tem sido usado amplamente pelas comunidades acadêmicas e do desenvolvimento. Incorpora exemplos da vida real para apresentar guias práticos para o desenho e implementação das avaliações de impacto. Os leitores poderão obter conhecimentos sólidos sobre avaliação de impacto e as melhores formas de utilizá-la para elaborar políticas e programas baseados em evidências rigorosas. A versão atualizada abrange as técnicas mais inovadoras de avaliação de programas e inclui conselhos práticos, assim como um conjunto ampliado de exemplos e estudos de caso provenientes de problemáticas de desenvolvimento recentes. Inclui também um novo material sobre a ética da pesquisa e indica instituições e associações para realizar avaliações de impacto. O livro está dividido em quatro seções: na primeira parte, analisa-se o que avaliar e por quê; a segunda parte apresenta os principais métodos de avaliação de impacto; a terceira parte aborda o tema de como administrar as avaliações de impacto; e a quarta parte analisa a etapa de amostragem das avaliações de impacto e a coleta de dados. O livro contém links para material instrucional complementar disponível on-line, incluindo um caso aplicado, assim como perguntas e respostas. A segunda edição atualizada será um recurso valioso para a comunidade internacional do desenvolvimento, universidades e formuladores de políticas públicas que precisam contar com melhores evidências sobre o que funciona para o desenvolvimento.
“ O objetivo deste livro é fornecer um guia acessível, abrangente e claro para a avaliação de impacto. Omaterial, desde a motivação da avaliação de impacto até as vantagens de diferentes metodologias, cálculos de poder estatístico e de custos, é explicado de forma muito clara e a cobertura é impressionante. Este livro se tornará um guia muito consultado e utilizado e afetará a formulação depolíticas para os próximos anos.†? Orazio Attanasio, Professor de Economia, University College London; Diretor, Centro de Avaliação de Políticas de Desenvolvimento, Instituto de Estudos Fiscais, Reino Unido “ Este é um recurso valioso para quem procura realizar avaliações de impacto no mundo em desenvolvimento, abrangendo os aspectos conceituais e práticos envolvidos, ilustrados com exemplos de prática recente.†? Michael Kremer, Professor de Sociedades em Desenvolvimento, Departamento de Economia, Universidade de Harvard, Estados Unidos “ Os ingredientes principais para boas avaliações públicas são (a) metodologias apropriadas; (b) a capacidade de resolver problemas práticos, tais como coletar de dados, trabalhar com orçamentos baixos, e escrever relatório fi nal; e (c) governos responsáveis. Este livro não apenas descreve metodologias técnicas sólidas para medir o impacto de programas públicos, mas também fornece vários exemplos e nos leva ao mundo real da implementação de avaliações, desde o convencimento dos formuladores de políticas até a divulgação dos resultados. Se mais profi ssionais e formuladores de políticas lessem este manual, teríamos melhores políticas e resultados em muitos países. Se os governos melhorarem a prestação de contas, o impacto deste manual será ainda maior.†? Gonzalo Hernández Licona, Secretário Executivo, Conselho Nacional de Avaliação de Políticas de Desenvolvimento Social (CONEVAL), México “ Eu recomendo este livro como um guia claro e acessível para as questões desafi adoras, práticas e técnicas, enfrentadas na elaboração de avaliações de impacto. Ele se baseia em material que tem sidotestado em workshops em todo o mundo e deve se mostrar igualmente útil aos profi ssionais, formuladores de políticas e avaliadores.†? Nick York, Chefe do Departamento de Avaliação, Departamento para o Desenvolvimento Internacional, Reino Unido “ O conhecimento é um dos bens mais valiosos para compreender a natureza complexa do processo de desenvolvimento. A avaliação de impacto pode contribuir para preencher a lacuna entre intuição e evidências, para melhor informar a formulação de políticas. Este livro, um dos resultados tangíveis do Fundo Estratégico de Avaliação de Impacto, equipa os profi ssionais de desenvolvimento humano com ferramentas de ponta para produzir evidências sobre quais políticas funcionam e por quê. Visto que ele aumenta a nossa capacidade de alcançar resultados, esperamos que faça uma grande diferença na prática do desenvolvimento.†? Soraya Rodríguez Ramos, Secretária de Estado para a Cooperação Internacional, Espanha
This Handbook offers a comprehensive collection of essays that cover essential features of geographical mobility, from internal migration, to international migration, to urbanization, to the adaptation of migrants in their destinations. Part I of the collection introduces the range of theoretical perspectives offered by several social science disciplines, while also examining the crucial relationship between internal and international migration. Part II takes up methods, ranging from how migration data are best collected to contemporary techniques for analyzing such data. Part III of the handbook contains summaries of present trends across all world regions. Part IV rounds out the volume with several contributions assessing pressing issues in contemporary policy areas. The volume’s editor Michael J. White has spent a career studying the pattern and process of internal and international migration, urbanization and population distribution in a wide variety of settings, from developing societies to advanced economies. In this Handbook he brings together contributors from all parts of the world, gathering in this one volume both geographical and substantive expertise of the first rank. The Handbook will be a key reference source for established scholars, as well as an invaluable high-level introduction to the most relevant topics in the field for emerging scholars.
A Handbook for Social Science Field Research: Essays & Bibliographic Sources on Research Design and Methods provides both novice and experienced scholars with valuable insights to a select list of critical texts pertaining to a wide array of social science methods useful when doing fieldwork. Through essays on ethnography to case study, archival research, oral history, surveys, secondary data analysis, and ethics, this refreshing new collection offers "tales from the field" by renowned scholars across various disciplines. Key Features: Offers real life guidance: Personal "tales from the field" by renowned social science scholars exemplify how fieldwork requires adaptation, adoption, and flexibility with regards to methodological approaches. In addition, thoughtful commentaries on how to conduct research and pursue a research career in the social sciences offer guidance on making difficult research and career choices. Highlights vital bibliographic references: Bibliographies of critical texts help guide researchers as they broaden their methodological approaches and develop their research skills. This is not your ordinary reference list, but a compilation of the top classics and current, but soon-to-be classics, in the field of social science research. Addresses ethical concerns: Discussions of ethical concerns are presented throughout the collection, as well as a stand-alone essay on ethical considerations in field-based research. Explicit attention throughout the collection to ethical concerns is rare among methodology texts, but required as field work becomes more complex and concerns about human subjects′ safety grow. Intended Audience: Ideal for advanced undergraduate and graduate social science methods courses, where there is a growing demand for multiple methods or mixed methods training; as well as a perfect, lightweight handbook for all researchers and professionals interested in having a comprehensive collection of bibliographic information for social science research
This book investigates the relationships between economies of scale in food consumption and a number of socio-economic and demographic characteristics of households and household behavioural choices since food is the major share of household expenditure for poor households. The characteristics considered comprise household size, location, income, and gender of the head of household while the behavioural choices considered comprise the decision to consume home-grown food and the decision to adopt domestic technology to aid food preparation and consumption. The book proposes two theoretical models to rationalize the role of the consumption of home-grown food and the adoption of domestic technology in enhancing economies of scale in food consumption. Econometric models are also used to empirically test the validity of the two theoretical models while adjusted poverty estimations are derived numerically using the estimated equivalence scales. Although data used in applying these techniques are based on four Household Income and Expenditure Surveys conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) in Sri Lanka, the methodology can be used for similar analysis in relation to any other country.
