The Rigor Revolution: New Standards of Evidence for Impact Assessment of International Agricultural Research

James Stevenson, Karen Macours and Douglas Gollin ()
Additional contact information
James Stevenson: IFPRI - International Food Policy Research Institute [India] - IFPRI - International Food Policy Research Institute [Washington] - CGIAR - Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research [CGIAR], CGIAR Standing Panel on Impact Assessment

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: We take stock of the major changes in methodology for studying the impacts of international agricultural research, focusing on the period 2006–2020. Impact assessment of agricultural research has a long and recognized tradition. Until the mid-2000s, such assessments were dominated by a model of demand for and supply of agricultural products in partial equilibrium. The basic ideas for this approach were sketched out by Griliches more than half a century ago. We describe the implications of heightened standards of evidence for good practice in three domains of research design: causal inference, valid measurement, and statistical representativeness. We document advances in each of these domains and review recent evidence that demonstrates the lessons that can be learned from adopting these practices, emphasizing the importance of evidence at-scale, the need to consider portfolios of innovations at a national level, and the challenges of accounting for innovations that are promoted as bundles.

Keywords: agricultural research for development; impact assessment; measurement; causality; scale (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-08
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Annual Review of Resource Economics, 2023, 15, pp.495-515. ⟨10.1146/annurev-resource-101722-082519⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
Journal Article: The Rigor Revolution: New Standards of Evidence for Impact Assessment of International Agricultural Research (2023)
Working Paper: The Rigor Revolution: New Standards of Evidence for Impact Assessment of International Agricultural Research (2023)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-04155302

DOI: 10.1146/annurev-resource-101722-082519

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().