Abstract The Synthetic Control Method (SCM) has become a widely used tool in both
identifying and estimating the causal impact of policies, shocks, and interventions of interest …

We use the synthetic control method to analyze the effect of face masks on the spread of
COVID-19 in Germany. Our identification approach exploits regional variation in the point in …

This paper estimates the effects on rural education of the send-down movement during the
Cultural Revolution, when about 16 million urban youth were mandated to resettle in the …

It is common practice for policymakers to perform ex-post evaluation of the impact of
economic and social programs via evidence-based statistical analysis. This effort is mainly …

In this paper, we assess the effectiveness of early climate policy in emerging economies by
causally evaluating the impact of China's Low-carbon City Pilot (LCCP) on city-level per …

This paper examines the effects of the abandonment of China's Grand Canal—the world's
largest and oldest artificial waterway—which served as a disruption to regional trade access …

The empirical literature shows that firms overinvest in working capital and that these
investments are economically inefficient. We decompose working capital investments in the …

Importance Two states modified laws to remove or substantially reduce criminal penalties for
any drug possession. The hypothesis was that removing criminal penalties for drug …

Schools have been central in the debate about COVID-19. On the one hand, many have
argued that they should be kept open, given their importance to youngsters and the future of …

The Synthetic Control Method as a Tool to Understand State Policy Page 1 STATE AND
LOCAL FINANCE INITIATIVE RESEARCH REPORT The Synthetic Control Method as a Tool …