Based on Raghabendra Chattopadhyay and Esther Duflo. 2004. Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a Randomized Policy Experiment in India, Econometrica, 72(5): 1409–43.
All materials presented here build on the resources for instructors designed by Elena Llaudet and Kosuke Imai in Data Analysis for Social Science: A Friendly and Practical Introduction (Princeton University Press).
Let’s continue working with the data from the experiment in India. As a reminder, Table 1 shows the names and descriptions of the variables in this dataset, where the unit of observation is villages.
Table 1: Variables in “india.csv”
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
| village | village identifier (“Gram Panchayat number_village number”) |
| female | whether village was assigned a female politician: 1=yes, 0=no |
| water | number of new (or repaired) drinking water facilities in the village since random assignment |
| irrigation | number of new (or repaired) irrigation facilities in the village since random assignment |
In this problem set, we will practice (1) how to estimate an average treatment effect using data from a randomized experiment and (2) how to write a conclusion statement.
As always, we will start by loading and looking at the data (don’t forget to set your working directory first!):
village female water irrigation
1 GP1_village2 1 10 0
2 GP1_village1 1 0 5
3 GP2_village2 1 2 2
4 GP2_village1 1 31 4
5 GP3_village2 0 0 0
6 GP3_village1 0 0 0Considering that the dataset we are analyzing comes from a randomized experiment, what can we compute to estimate the average causal effect of having a female politician on the number of new (or repaired) drinking water facilities? Please provide the name of the estimator.
In this dataset, what is the average number of new (or repaired) drinking water facilities in villages with a female politician? Please answer with a full sentence and use the summarise() command to obtain your answer.
What is the average number of new (or repaired) drinking water facilities in villages with a male politician? Please answer with a full sentence and use the summarise() command to obtain your answer.
What is the estimated average causal effect of having a female politician on the number of new (or repaired) drinking water facilities? Please provide a full substantive answer. Make sure to include the assumption, why the assumption is reasonable, the treatment, the outcome, as well as the direction, size, and unit of measurement of the average treatment effect.