Experimentation at Scale

Karthik Muralidharan and Paul Niehaus

No 23957, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper makes the case for greater use of randomized experiments “at scale.” We review various critiques of experimental program evaluation in developing countries, and discuss how experimenting at scale along three specific dimensions – the size of the sampling frame, the number of units treated, and the size of the unit of randomization – can help alleviate them. We find that program evaluation randomized controlled trials published in top journals over the last 15 years have typically been “small” in these senses, but also identify a number of examples – including from our own work – demonstrating that experimentation at much larger scales is both feasible and valuable.

JEL-codes: C93 H4 H50 O20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
Note: DEV ED LS PE
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (102)

Published as Karthik Muralidharan & Paul Niehaus, 2017. "Experimentation at Scale," Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol 31(4), pages 103-124.

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