What Can Experiments Tell Us About How to Improve Government Performance?

Rachel Gisselquist () and Miguel Niño-Zarazúa

Journal of Globalization and Development, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-45

Abstract: In recent years, experimental methods have been both highly celebrated, and roundly criticized, as a means of addressing core questions in the social sciences. They have received particular attention in the analysis of development interventions. This paper focuses on two key questions: (1) what have been the main contributions of RCTs to the study of government performance? and (2) what could be the contributions, and relatedly the limits? It draws inter alia on a new systematic review of experimental and quasi-experimental studies on governance to consider both the contributions and limits of RCTs in the extant literature. A final section introduces the studies included in this symposium in light of this discussion. Collectively, the studies push beyond polarized debates over experimental methods towards a new middle ground, considering both how experimental work can better address identified weaknesses and how experimental and non-experimental techniques can be combined most fruitfully.

Keywords: development; governance; randomized controlled trials (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D72 D73 H41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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DOI: 10.1515/jgd-2014-0011

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Journal of Globalization and Development is currently edited by Joseph E. Stiglitz, Kevin Gallagher, Jeronim Capaldo, Arjun Jayadev, José Antonio Ocampo and Dani Rodrik

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