Laboratory experiments can pre-design to address power and selection issues

Weili Ding

Journal of the Economic Science Association, 2020, vol. 6, issue 2, No 2, 125-138

Abstract: Abstract In this paper, motivated by aspects of preregistration plans we discuss issues that we believe have important implications for how experiments are designed. To make possible valid inferences about the effects of a treatment in question, we first illustrate how economic theories can help allocate subjects across treatments in a manner that boosts statistical power. Using data from two laboratory experiments where subject behavior deviated sharply from theory, we show that the ex-post subject allocation to maximize statistical power is closer to these ex-ante calculations relative to traditional designs that balances the number of subjects across treatments. Finally, we call for increased attention to (i) the appropriate levels of the type I and type II errors for power calculations, and (ii) how experimenters consider balance in part by properly handling over-subscription to sessions.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1007/s40881-020-00089-y

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