Calls for papers

 

International Journal of Computational Economics and Econometrics

 

Special Issue on: "Counterfactual Methods for Policy Evaluation: Theory, Design and Applications"

Guest Editors:
Elena Ragazzi and Lisa Sella, CNR-IRCrES, Italy

High quality original research papers are invited for this special issue, which aims to explore and bring together theoretical and applied contributions concerning various methodological aspects of counterfactual impact evaluation.

This call originates from the consideration that European institutions increasingly demand that the Member States investigate the net effect (impact) of their programmes using counterfactual methods. Such requests come from the increasing awareness that this method is the most credible way to establish causality between an observed outcome and the intervention that is presumed to have generated that outcome.

At the same time, it must be openly acknowledged that counterfactual methods suffer from many limitations, both in their applicability and in the credibility of results they generate. For example, the most credible results come from randomised experiments, which are the least applicable counterfactual methods, at least in the context of structural funds. Moreover, many related issues need further clarification, especially in quasi-experimental settings, concerning the identification of proper comparison groups, the reorganisation of administrative databases into micro-data suited for impact evaluation, the correction of selection bias due to the presence of unobservable factors, and many other issues which deserve a clearer understanding.

Subject Coverage
Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Strategies and methodologies for comparison group selection
• Corrections for selection bias
• Alternative estimates and validation
• Computational topics related to data sources
• Data management suited for evaluation problems
• Theoretical models for impact evaluation
• Econometric estimators for impact evaluation
• Applied policy evaluation
• Software development for counterfactual statistical analysis

Notes for Prospective Authors

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. (N.B. Conference papers may only be submitted if the paper has been completely re-written and if appropriate written permissions have been obtained from any copyright holders of the original paper).

All papers are refereed through a peer review process.

Before submitting your paper, please email a 10,000 character abstract to the Guest Editors at elena.ragazzi@ircres.cnr.it or lisa.sella@ircres.cnr.it.

All papers must be submitted online. To submit a paper, please read our Submitting articles page.

Important Dates

Submission of full manuscript: 31 August, 2016