Does Technical Assistance Matter?: An Impact Evaluation Approach to Estimate its Value Added

Date
Jan 2009
Many public programs and operations by multilateral organisations include technical assistance to the direct beneficiaries of the program in addition to pure financing. However, there is no substantial body of studies that calculates the additional impact; in the sense of exclusively attributable to, of technical assistance on the outcome of interest of the program. In this working paper, the authors propose the use of multi-treatment impact evaluation method -propensity score combined with exact matching for dosage and double difference- for estimating technical assistance's impact. The two cases examined in this study correspond to the Neighbourhood Improvement Program (NIP) of Chile and the Social Investment Fund of Guatemala (SIF). Given the small dollar value of technical assistance relative to the dollar value of transfers not only does technical assistance matter but it is a way of getting more for less.