Abstract

Agricultural development impact evaluation requires an assortment of analytical tools to address a wide range of questions, from the benefits and costs of development projects to the implications of new crop technologies and policies. This review focuses on evaluating the impacts of agricultural interventions as well as the impacts of other types of interventions on agricultural outcomes. It follows a progression from the most astructural, reduced-form experimental methods to the most structural econometric and simulation models, with many examples along the way. No single tool is sufficient or appropriate for all impact evaluations; all methods have strengths and weaknesses, and combinations of methods often can provide a deeper and more reliable understanding of impacts than stand-alone approaches.