As part of the Development Effectiveness Framework, the Strategy Development Division of the Office of Strategic Planning and Development Effectiveness, in collaboration with Knowledge and Learning Sector, organized the an internal workshop entitled Empirical Strategies Reloaded and facilitated by MIT professor Joshua Angrist.

The goal for this workshop was to strengthen the project evaluation skills of IDB staff who are working to measure the impact of the Bank's operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The course was held at Bank offices in Washington, DC in July 2010 and approximately thirty IDB staff with backgrounds in economics participated in the four day workshop.

The workshop covered the core econometric ideas and widely used empirical modeling strategies discussed in Dr. Angrist’s famous book Mostly Harmless Econometrics. The main theoretical ideas were illustrated with examples. Following a review of regression basics, course participants focused on applications and ideas from the second half of Mostly Harmless Econometrics. Topics covered included instrumental variables, differences-in-differences, regression discontinuity, and an overview of issues that commonly arise around standard errors.

The course included lectures, informal presentations by IDB staff about evaluation challenges during lunch sessions, and office hours where participants had one-on-one time with Dr. Angrist to talk about their evaluation projects and receive valuable advice. Dr. Angrist created a positive learning environment that fostered open dialogue and group discussion.