Week 2: Randomized control trials
Instructions
What works? This week, we look at how RCTs identify the causal effects of policy innovations. Glennerster and Takavarasha provide a practically-minded introduction to RCTs in the context of development policy. Reading the two chapters, focus on understanding the concepts ‘causality’ and ‘randomization’ and how their interplay allows to assess if a policy works. In the seminar, we are going to discuss two RCTs (Chetty et al. 2018 and Hainmueller et al. 2019)
Required readings
- Glennerster, Rachel and Takavarasha, Kudzai (2013). Running Randomized Evaluations. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Chapter 1-2.
- Chetty, Raj and Hendren, Nathaniel and Katz, Lawrence F (2016). The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children: New Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment. American Economic Review, 106(4), pp. 855–902.
- Hainmueller, Jens and Lawrence, Duncan and Gest, Justin and Hotard, Michael and Koslowski, Rey and Laitin, David D (2018). A Randomized Controlled Design Reveals Barriers To Citizenship for Low-income Immigrants. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(5), pp. 939–944.
Further reading
- Gerber, Alan S. and Green, Donald P. (2012). Field Experiments. Design, Analysis, and Interpretation. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
- Duflo, Esther and Banerjee, Abhijit (2011). Poor Economics. New York: PublicAffairs.
- Banerjee, Abhijit V and Duflo, Esther (2019). Good Economics for Hard Times: Better Answers to our Biggest Problems. New York: PublicAffairs.