All That Glitters Is Not Gold: The Political Economy of Randomised Evaluations in Development

Florent Bédécarrats, Isabelle Guérin and François Roubaud

Working Paper from Agence française de développement

Abstract: Randomised Control Trials (RCTs) have a narrow scope, restricted to basic intervention schemes. Experimental designs also display specific biases and political uses when implemented in the real world. Despite these limitations, the method has been advertised as the gold standard to evaluate development policies. This paper takes a political economy angle to explore this paradox. It argues that the success of RCTs is driven mainly by a new scientific business model based on a mix of simplicity and mathematical rigour, media and donor appeal, and academic and financial returns. This in turn meets current interests and preferences in the academic world and the donor community.

JEL-codes: Q (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33
Date: 2017-08-31
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published in Research Papers

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Related works:
Journal Article: All that Glitters is not Gold. The Political Economy of Randomized Evaluations in Development (2019)
Working Paper: All that glitters is not gold: the political economy of randomized evaluations in development (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:avg:wpaper:en899

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