2021 Methods Lecture, Alberto Abadie "Synthetic Controls: Methods and Practice"

The credible estimation of causal effects is a central task of applied econometrics. Two tools for this purpose that have attracted growing interest in empirical research are regression discontinuity designs and synthetic control methods. The 2021 Methods Lectures, presented during the virtual Summer Institute by Alberto Abadie of MIT and NBER and Matias Cattaneo and Rocio Titiunik of Princeton University, introduce these tools and describe best practices for their application. A video recording of Alberto Abadie's presentation may be found above. There are also background papers and code for implementing some of these tools, and an archive of the 14 previous NBER Methods Lectures.

Supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant #G-2019-12304