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Highly prized experiments
- Source :
- World Development. 127:104824
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2020.
-
Abstract
- The new Nobel prize winners have expertly popularized randomized controlled trials (RCTs) as the “tool-of-choice” for empirical research. The award is a good opportunity to reflect on the role of RCTs in development-policy evaluation. Unbiasedness is the tool’s main virtue; transparency is another. Practitioners should also be aware of some limitations. First, an RCT assigns the treatment in a different way to most real-world policies, which use purposive selection; given heterogeneous impacts, one is evaluating a different intervention. Second, the tool may only be feasible for non-random subsets of both the relevant populations and the policy options, biasing assessments of overall development effectiveness. Third, given budget-constraints and a bias-variance trade-off, a non-RCT may allow a larger sample size, making its trials often closer to the truth. There is a continuing need for a broad range of research methods for addressing pressing knowledge gaps in fighting poverty.
- Subjects :
- Sample selection
Economics and Econometrics
Actuarial science
Sociology and Political Science
Poverty
Computer science
050204 development studies
05 social sciences
Geography, Planning and Development
Development
law.invention
Intervention (law)
Empirical research
Randomized controlled trial
law
Sample size determination
Transparency (graphic)
0502 economics and business
Selection (linguistics)
050207 economics
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 0305750X
- Volume :
- 127
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- World Development
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........a238d9d6ec0be74a97b05f6f7061c535