Do Pre-Registration and Pre-analysis Plans Reduce p-Hacking and Publication Bias?

Abel Brodeur, Nikolai M. Cook, Jonathan S. Hartley, Anthony Heyes
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Abel Brodeur and Nikolai Cook

LCERPA Working Papers from Laurier Centre for Economic Research and Policy Analysis

Abstract: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are increasingly prominent in economics, with pre-registration and pre-analysis plans (PAPs) promoted as important in ensuring the credibility of findings. We investigate whether these tools reduce the extent of p-hacking and publication bias by collecting and studying the universe of test statistics, 15,992 in total, from RCTs published in 15 leading economics journals from 2018 through 2021. In our primary analysis, we find no meaningful difference in the distribution of test statistics from pre-registered studies, compared to their non-pre-registered counterparts. However, pre-registered studies that have a complete PAP are significantly less p-hacked. These results point to the importance of PAPs, rather than pre-registration in itself, in ensuring credibility.

Keywords: Pre-analysis plan; Pre-registration; p-Hacking; Publication bias; Research credibility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B41 C13 C40 C93 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-08-24
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-sog
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://lcerpa.org/files/LCERPA_2022_3.pdf

Related works:
Working Paper: Do Pre-registration and Pre-analysis Plans Reduce P-Hacking and Publication Bias? (2022)
Working Paper: Do Pre-Registration and Pre-analysis Plans Reduce p-Hacking and Publication Bias? (2022)
Working Paper: Do Pre-Registration and Pre-analysis Plans Reduce p-Hacking and Publication Bias? (2022)
Working Paper: Do Pre-Registration and Pre-analysis Plans Reduce p-Hacking and Publication Bias? (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wlu:lcerpa:am0132

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