Two Selection Problems, One Bias Term: Experimental Sign-Up Is Treatment Choice in Disguise

John List

No 35544, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Consider a referee report containing the sentence: “Assignment to treatment was voluntary, though the authors acknowledge this as a limitation in the conclusion.” The Editor would summarily reject. Now replace “assignment to treatment” with “entry into the experimental sample,” and the sentence describes the modal published experiment. This study shows that both biases are the same mathematical object. The bias from non-random sample entry is the sorting-on-gains term from the classic selection decomposition. Interestingly, they both admit an isomorphic Roy micro-foundation and inverse-Mills characterization. A simple calibration reveals that for the typical experiment, the observed bias can be large. One solution to this bias is to conduct a natural field experiment (NFE). When an NFE is not possible, three alternative reporting practices are offered.

JEL-codes: C21 C24 C9 C90 C91 C92 C93 C99 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-07
Note: EEE LE LS PE TWP
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Working Paper: Two Selection Problems, One Bias Term: Experimental Sign-Up Is Treatment Choice in Disguise (2026)
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