THE COLLEGE of Economics and Management of the University of the Philippines-Los Baños held a seminar entitled “Strategies and Methodologies of Economic Impact Evaluation” on March 27 at the Rural Economic Development and Renewable Energy Center.

The seminar featured UP alumni Prof. Suzette Galinato and Prof. Gregmar Galinato, who took part in the Balik Scientist program of the Department of Science and Technology.

Galinato, an extension assistant professor and extension economist for agriculture and natural resources at the Washington State University, discussed cost-benefit analysis, specifically enterprise budget and partial budget framework. She explained that economic analysis is a part of transdisciplinary research which shows what alternative is economically feasible for the targeted stakeholders.

She cited as an example WSU’s website database on enterprise budgets and their research on biodegradable mulch used in pumpkin production. She said that the data should not remain as numbers but should be made accessible to stakeholders.

Prof. Gregmar Galinato, also of the WSU, discussed causal identification and impact evaluation. He emphasized the importance of finding a clearly defined treatment and control group, as comparing the two groups will show the impact.

He enumerated the different methodologies used to identify causal effects, their characteristics, and their limitations.

The open forum gave rise to discussions on experimental economics, the use of technology such as Artificial Intelligence in economic research and how students can utilize the discussed methodologies despite budget constraints.