A Practical Introduction to Regression Discontinuity Designs: Foundations

Matias D. Cattaneo; Nicolás Idrobo; Rocío Titiunik

doi:10.1017/9781108684606

Series: Elements in Quantitative and Computational Methods for the Social Sciences

A Practical Introduction to Regression Discontinuity Designs

Foundations

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 November 2019

Matias D. Cattaneo ,

Nicolás Idrobo and

Rocío Titiunik

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Matias D. Cattaneo: Affiliation:
Princeton University, New Jersey
Nicolás Idrobo: Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
Rocío Titiunik: Affiliation:
Princeton University, New Jersey

Summary

In this Element and its accompanying second Element, A Practical Introduction to Regression Discontinuity Designs: Extensions, Matias Cattaneo, Nicolás Idrobo, and Rocıìo Titiunik provide an accessible and practical guide for the analysis and interpretation of regression discontinuity (RD) designs that encourages the use of a common set of practices and facilitates the accumulation of RD-based empirical evidence. In this Element, the authors discuss the foundations of the canonical Sharp RD design, which has the following features: (i) the score is continuously distributed and has only one dimension, (ii) there is only one cutoff, and (iii) compliance with the treatment assignment is perfect. In the second Element, the authors discuss practical and conceptual extensions to this basic RD setup.

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Keywords

Regression Discontinuity Design Program Evaluation Sharp Regression Discontinuity Design RD Design

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Type: Element
Information: Series: Elements in Quantitative and Computational Methods for the Social Sciences

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108684606 [Opens in a new window]

Online ISBN: 9781108684606

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication: 13 February 2020

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References

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