published in: De Economist, 2017, 165 (1), 101-128
This paper investigates the empirical validity of the setup of a large-scale government neighbourhood investment programme in the Netherlands. Selection of neighbourhoods into the programme was determined by their score on a predetermined index. At first sight this is a textbook example for the application of a regression discontinuity (RD) design to estimate the causal effect of the programme on neighbourhood outcomes. However, at the discontinuity threshold we find a large gap in the share of non-Western immigrants. In addition, the pattern of non-compliance with the assignment rule is consistent with investing in neighbourhoods with a high share of non-Western immigrants. Finally, the way of selecting neighbourhoods into the programme could be a likely explanation for the imbalance at the discontinuity threshold. This case illustrates that RD designs can become invalid even when treatment and control groups have no influence on the assignment.
We use cookies to provide you with an optimal website experience. This includes cookies that are necessary for the operation of the site as well as cookies that are only used for anonymous statistical purposes, for comfort settings or to display personalized content. You can decide for yourself which categories you want to allow. Please note that based on your settings, you may not be able to use all of the site's functions.
Cookie settings
These necessary cookies are required to activate the core functionality of the website. An opt-out from these technologies is not available.
In order to further improve our offer and our website, we collect anonymous data for statistics and analyses. With the help of these cookies we can, for example, determine the number of visitors and the effect of certain pages on our website and optimize our content.