A Toolkit for a Score-Based Balance Metric for the Synthetic Control Method

A Tutorial for the synth_asmd STATA Program

Priscillia Hunt

ToolPublished Aug 24, 2021

Lack of balance results in the confounding of treatment effect estimates. In the context of the synthetic control method, researchers may be unsure whether a synthetic control group and a treated group are balanced. This toolkit provides background information on the synth_asmd program for Stata. This program can be used to calculate the Absolute Standardized Mean Difference (ASMD) as a test of balance between a synthetic control unit and a treated unit of the synthetic control method. This toolkit includes an example of the synth_asmd program commands used for calculating the mean ASMD and maximum ASMD as well as the sample code and datasets used in the tutorial.

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Hunt, Priscillia, A Toolkit for a Score-Based Balance Metric for the Synthetic Control Method: A Tutorial for the synth_asmd STATA Program. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2021. https://www.rand.org/pubs/tools/TLA1538-1.html.
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