Measuring and Bounding Experimenter Demand

Jonathan de Quidt, Johannes Haushofer and Christopher Roth

American Economic Review, 2018, vol. 108, issue 11, 3266-3302

Abstract: We propose a technique for assessing robustness to demand effects of findings from experiments and surveys. The core idea is that by deliberately inducing demand in a structured way we can bound its influence. We present a model in which participants respond to their beliefs about the researcher's objectives. Bounds are obtained by manipulating those beliefs with "demand treatments." We apply the method to 11 classic tasks, and estimate bounds averaging 0.13 standard deviations, suggesting that typical demand effects are probably modest. We also show how to compute demand-robust treatment effects and how to structurally estimate the model.

JEL-codes: C83 C90 D83 D91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.20171330
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (349)

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Working Paper: Measuring and Bounding Experimenter Demand (2017)
Working Paper: Measuring and Bounding Experimenter Demand (2017)
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