Policy Evaluation Synthetic Control Method

The Synthetic Control Method (SCM) is a causal inference technique for evaluating the effect of a policy or intervention on a single treated unit — such as a region, country, or firm — by constructing a weighted combination of untreated comparison units that closely mirrors the treated unit before the intervention. Introduced by Abadie and Gardeazabal (2003) and formalized by Abadie, Diamond, and Hainmueller (2010), it provides a data-driven, transparent counterfactual for comparative case studies.