In impact evaluations, the involvement of research in program implementation is crucial for the development of an adequate design and the accurate interpretation of results. In turn, the active involvement of policy makers in the research process is important for the buy-in and effective dissemination of the results. A new tool has been developed to facilitate this interaction – Bayesian impact evaluation allows to understand how program makers develop expectations about the outcomes of their programs and to build those into the analysis. David McKenzie and Leonardo Iacovone present in this Digitial Development Dialogue the novel toolkit, which apart from capturing expectations about outcomes has also helpful features for the statistical analysis of results. It allows to document policy makers’ priors before evaluation results are available, to later contrast them against actual program impacts. The toolkit will be discussed by Gabriela Macoveiu who will describe how program implementers usually form expectations and elaborate on how she expects that the process of being involved in an RCT for the first time might change the operations at her agency.

Speakers

• David McKenzie (World Bank)
• Leonardo Iacovone (World Bank)
• Gabriela Macoveiu (RDA)

The Digital Development Dialogue (3D) seminar is a monthly 45-minute online forum for policy and research exchange. Two speakers – one researcher and one practitioner – touch upon key topics in development policy with the goal of stimulating a meaningful dialogue across the theory & practice divide.