Should the Randomistas (Continue to) Rule?

Martin Ravallion

No 492, Working Papers from Center for Global Development

Abstract: The rising popularity of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in development applications has come with continuing debates on the pros and cons of this approach. The paper revisits the issues. While RCTs have a place in the toolkit for impact evaluation, an unconditional preference for RCTs as the “gold standard” is questionable. The statistical case is unclear on a priori grounds; a stronger ethical defense is often called for; and there is a risk of distorting the evidence-base for informing policymaking. Going forward, pressing knowledge gaps should drive the questions asked and how they are answered, not the methodological preferences of some researchers. The gold standard is the best method for the question at hand.

Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2018-08-16, Revised 2019-01-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-hpe
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Working Paper: Should the Randomistas (Continue to) Rule? (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cgd:wpaper:492

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