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Difference-in-Difference

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Abstract

The difference-in-difference (DiD) is one of the most popular approaches to evaluate causal effects of programs or policies. The idea is very simple: a treatment group is affected by an external change in one period, and the main aim is to evaluate how this treated group changes after the policy, regarding a control group that is not affected. So it controls the double difference (changes over time and over control group). Although some assumptions have to be assumed, its flexibility and requiring a relatively small volume of data yield to a large number of papers and documents that use it on topics as competition policy, merger evaluations, political economy, and so on.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Economía, Empresa y Turismo, Departamento de Análisis Económico Aplicado. Despacho D.2-12, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

    J. L. Jiménez

  2. Departament d’Economia Aplicada, Research Group of “Economia Aplicada” (GEAP), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain

    J. Perdiguero

Authors
  1. J. L. Jiménez
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  2. J. Perdiguero
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. L. Jiménez .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. MRE and University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France

    Alain Marciano

  2. Faculté d’Economie, Université de Montpellier and LAMETA-UMR CNRS, Montpellier, France

    Alain Marciano

  3. DiGSPES, University of Eastern Piedmont, Alessandria, Italy

    Giovanni Battista Ramello

  4. IEL, Torino, Italy

    Giovanni Battista Ramello

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Jiménez, J., Perdiguero, J. (2019). Difference-in-Difference. In: Marciano, A., Ramello, G.B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Law and Economics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7753-2_664

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