The synthetic control methodology (Abadie and Gardeazabal, 2003, American
Economic Review 93: 113–132; Abadie, Diamond, and Hainmueller,
2010, Journal of the American Statistical Association 105:
493–505) allows for a data-driven approach to small-sample comparative studies.
synth_runner automates the process of running
multiple synthetic control estimations using synth. It
conducts placebo estimates in space (estimations for the same treatment period
but on all the control units). Inference (p-values) is provided
by comparing the estimated main effect with the distribution of placebo effects.
It also allows several units to receive treatment, possibly at different time
periods. It allows automatic generation of the outcome predictors and
diagnostics by splitting the pretreatment into training and validation portions.
Additionally, it provides diagnostics to assess fit and generates visualizations
of results.
