Estimating Treatment Effects from Spatial Policy Experiments: An Application to Ugandan Microfinance
提出一种利用第二对照组校正空间异质性的方法，用于估计空间政策实验中的处理效应，并应用于乌干达小额信贷的两个创新项目，发现增强借款人贷款条款控制权的项目改善了结果，而捆绑健康保险的项目效果不一。
This paper demonstrates a method for estimating treatment effects in spatial tests, utilizing a second control group to measure unexplained spatial phenomena. The technique is implemented on two innovations in Ugandan microfinance, and we measure the ways in which concurrent shocks such as an Ebola outbreak and a contentious presidential election altered outcomes differentially across regions. By correcting for this spatial heterogeneity, we measure the impact of the policies; a program that increased borrowers' control over the terms of their loans improved outcomes, while the results of a program that bundled health insurance into the lending contract were more mixed. Copyright by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.