This paper provides an introduction and "user guide" to Regression Discontinuity (RD) designs for empirical researchers. It presents the basic theory behind the research design, details when RD is likely to be valid or invalid given economic incentives, explains why it is considered a "quasi-experimental" design, and summarizes different ways (with their advantages and disadvantages) of estimating RD designs and the limitations of interpreting these estimates. Concepts are discussed using examples drawn from the growing body of empirical research using RD.

Regression Discontinuity Designs in Economics

This paper provides an introduction and “user guide” to Regression Discontinuity (RD) designs for empirical researchers. It presents the basic theory behind the research design, details when RD is likely to be valid or invalid given economic incentives, explains why it is considered a “quasi-experimental” design, and summarizes different ways (with their advantages and disadvantages) of estimating RD designs and the limitations of interpreting these estimates. Concepts are discussed using examples drawn from the growing body of empirical research using RD. ( JEL C21, C31)

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Regression discontinuity designs in economics

EU regional policy is an investment policy. It supports job creation, competitiveness, economic growth, improved quality of life and sustainable development. These investments support the delivery of the Europe 2020 strategy. The present paper analysis two strategically different options of EU regional policy: place-neutral versus place-based policies for economic development. Our results suggest that in many EU regions the place-neutral policies may no be the best policy response to facing new challenges posed by deeper economic integration and globalisation.

An Agenda for a Reformed Cohesion Policy A place-based approach to meeting European Union challenges and expectations

The cell wall is essential to nearly every aspect of the biology and pathogenicity of Candida albicans. Although it was intially considered an almost inert cellular structure that protected the protoplast against osmotic offense, more recent studies have demonstrated that it is a dynamic organelle. The major components of the cell wall are glucan and chitin, which are associated with structural rigidity, and mannoproteins. The protein component, including both mannoprotein and nonmannoproteins, comprises some 40 or more moieties. Wall proteins may differ in their expression, secretion, or topological location within the wall structure. Proteins may be modified by glycosylation (primarily addition of mannose residues), phosphorylation, and ubiquitination. Among the secreted enzymes are those that are postulated to have substrates within the cell wall and those that find substrates in the extracellular environment. Cell wall proteins have been implicated in adhesion to host tissues and ligands. Fibrinogen, complement fragments, and several extracellular matrix components are among the host proteins bound by cell wall proteins. Proteins related to the hsp70 and hsp90 families of conserved stress proteins and some glycolytic enzyme proteins are also found in the cell wall, apparently as bona fide components. In addition, the expression of some proteins is associated with the morphological growth form of the fungus and may play a role in morphogenesis. Finally, surface mannoproteins are strong immunogens that trigger and modulate the host immune response during candidiasis.

Cell Wall and Secreted Proteins of Candida albicans: Identification, Function, and Expression

A clinician or a medical laboratory worker who turns over the 250 pages of Professor R. A. FISHER's new book' and discovers that more than 200 pages are devoted to the discussion of the yield of plots of land at Rothamsted Experimental Station will be apt to conclude that the wQrk is no, concern of his. If, having a few minutes to spare, he samples -a few pages and discovers that, although a most sparing use is made of mathematical symbols or formulae, the author's argument requires a strenuous effort of attention to follow, his conclusion may be strengthened. It is, however, quite wrong. The adjecti-ves \" great,\" \" masterly,\" and \" epoch-making \" may properly be abandoned to the Sunday reviewers of novels and poems, but it is safe to say that this book is one of the most important contributions to scientific methodology of our generation. The lessons the author has to teach are well epitomized in the following quotations. \" It is an essential condition of experimentation that the experimental material is known to be variable, but it is not known, in respect of any individual, in what direction his response to a given treatment will vary from the average. No direct allowance for this variability can, therefore, be made. The knowledge. which guides us in increasing the precision of an experiment is not a knowledge of the individual peculiarities of particular experimental units, such as plots ofland, experimental animals,coco-nut palms, or hospital patients, but a knowledge that there is less variation within certain aggregates of these than there is among different individuals belonging to different aggregates.\" (Page 78.) \" We are usually ignorant which, out of innumerable possible factors, may prove ultimately to be the most important, though we may have strong presuppositions that some few of them are particularly worthy of study. We have usually no knowledge that any one factor will exert its effect independently of all others that can be varied, or that its effects are particularly simply related to variations in these other factors. On the contrary, if single factors are chosen for investigation, it is not because we anticipate that the laws of nature can be expressed with any particular simplicity in terms of these variables, but because they are variables which can be controlled or measured with comparative ease. If the investigator, in these circumstances, confines his attention to any single factor, we may infer either that he is the unfortunate victim of a doctrinaire theory as to how experimentation should proceed, or that the time, material, or equipment at his disposal are too limited to allow him to give attention to more than one narrow aspect of his problem.\" (Page 97.) \"We may, by deliberately varying in each case some of the conditions of the experiment, achieve a wider inductive basis for our conclusions, witlout in any degree impairing their precision.\" (Page 107.)

Planning of experiments

To evaluate the effect of an R&D subsidy one needs to know what the subsidized firms would have done without the incentive. This paper studies an Italian programme of subsidies for the applied development of innovations, exploiting a discontinuity in programme financing due to an unexpected shortage of public money. To identify the effect of the programme, the study implements a regression discontinuity design and compares firms that applied for funding before and after the shortage occurred. The results indicate that the programme was not effective in stimulating innovative investment.

Evaluating the Impact of Innovation Incentives: Evidence from an Unexpected Shortage of Funds

Given the increasing share of the EU budget devoted to Regional Policy, several studies have tried to identify the impact of structural funds on economic growth. However, so far no consensus has been reached. We assess Regional Policy effects through a non-experimental comparison group method, the regression discontinuity design, and a novel regional dataset for the 1994–2006 period. We exploit the allocation rule of EU transfers by comparing regions with a per capita GDP level just below the eligibility threshold (75% of EU average) with those just above. Our findings show a positive impact of EU Regional Policy on economic growth.

Measuring the effects of European Regional Policy on economic growth: A regression discontinuity approach

How are growth and productivity in private firms affected by public subsidy? Evidence from a regional policy

Do subsidies to private capital boost firms' growth? A multiple regression discontinuity design approach

The increasing use of the reinforced earth technique in geotechnical engineering requires the development of reliable and practical yield design methods for reinforced earthworks. The method presented in this Paper originates from the idea that, from a macroscopic point of view, reinforced earth can be regarded as a homogeneous material with anisotropic properties, owing to the existence of privileged orientations due to the reinforcing strips. The strength criterion of such an equivalent material, which can be determined theoretically starting from the strength data of the reinforced earth components, turns out to be of the anisotropic frictional type. This criterion is applied to the stability analysis of a reinforced earth wall, making use of the yield design kinematic approach with rigid block failure mechanisms. The theoretical estimates obtained for the collapse height of the wall through this method appear to be in better agreement with experimental results than the values derived from classical de...

Guido Pellegrini

Papers

Evaluating the Impact of Innovation Incentives: Evidence from an Unexpected Shortage of Funds

Measuring the effects of European Regional Policy on economic growth: A regression discontinuity approach

How are growth and productivity in private firms affected by public subsidy? Evidence from a regional policy

Do subsidies to private capital boost firms' growth? A multiple regression discontinuity design approach

Yield design of reinforced earth walls by a homogenization method