R/lalonde.R

In jackcollison/causality: Tools for Performing Causal Inference with Observational Data

#' Lalonde Data
#'
#' Data from a paper by Robert Lalonde, "Evaluating the Econometric 
#' Evaluations of Training Programs," \emph{American Economic Review}, Vol. 76, 
#' pp. 604-620. 
#' 
#' We use data from Lalonde's economic examination of training programs in which he estimates the effect of
#' an employment program designed to help disadvantaged workers enter the labor market (Lalonde, 1986). The
#' data comes from the National Supported Work Demonstration (NSW), a temporary employment program that aimed
#' to help unskilled workers find jobs. At the time of the study, the NSW program was operating in ten cities
#' across the country, admitting women in families under Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC),
#' ex-drug addicts, ex-criminal offenders, and high school dropouts. Individuals were randomly assigned to a
#' treatment or control group where the treated were guaranteed jobs for 9-18 months (depending on the target
#' group and site). The treatment group was divided into sub-groups of three to five individuals who typically
#' worked together and met with an NSW representative to discuss work performance and issues. There is within-site
#' and between-site variation (e.g. male and female participants usually had different types of work and the
#' different sites had different base wages). Earnings and demographic data was collected for both the treatment
#' and control groups, both during and at nine-month intervals after the conclusion of the program. Although there
#' was a high attrition rate, it did not affect the experimental design. Lalonde provides experimental and non-
#' experimental examinations of the data. For our purposes, we use the data in a non-experimental context.
#' 
#'
#' @docType data
#'
#' @usage data(lalonde)
#'
#' @format A data frame with 445 observations and 12 variables, described below:
#' \describe{
#'   \item{age}{age in years}
#'   \item{educ}{years of schooling}
#'   \item{black}{indicator variable for Black}
#'   \item{hisp}{indicator variable for Hispanic}
#'   \item{married}{indicator variable for marital status}
#'   \item{nodegr}{indicator variable for high school diploma}
#'   \item{re74}{real earnings in 1974}
#'   \item{re75}{real earnings in 1975}
#'   \item{re78}{real earnings in 1978}
#'   \item{u74}{indicator variable for 1974 earnings being zero}
#'   \item{u75}{indicator variable for 1975 earnings being zero}
#'   \item{treat}{indicator variable for treatment status}
#'
#' }
#'
#'
#' @keywords datasets
#'
#' @references Robert Lalonde, "Evaluating the Econometric Evaluations of Training Programs," \emph{American Economic Review}, Vol. 76, pp. 604-620.
#'
#' @source \href{https://users.nber.org/~rdehejia/data/.nswdata2.html}{NBER}
#'
#' @examples
#' data(lalonde)
#' treat <- attr(lalonde, "treat")
#' age <- lalonde$age
"lalonde"