Working Paper: NBER ID: w14467
Authors: Abhijit V. Banerjee; Esther Duflo
Abstract: Randomized experiments have become a popular tool in development economics research, and have been the subject of a number of criticisms. This paper reviews the recent literature, and discusses the strengths and limitations of this approach in theory and in practice. We argue that the main virtue of randomized experiments is that, due to the close collaboration between researchers and implementers, they allow the estimation of parameters that it would not otherwise be possible to evaluate. We discuss the concerns that have been raised regarding experiments, and generally conclude that while they are real, they are often not specific to experiments. We conclude by discussing the relationship between theory and experiments.
Keywords: randomized experiments; development economics; program evaluation
JEL Codes: O1
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| improving access to textbooks (I24) | average test scores (C12) |
| deworming treatments (I19) | absenteeism (J22) |
| reducing class size (A21) | average test scores (C12) |
| reducing class size + empowered school committees (I24) | average test scores (C12) |
| incentives based on child performance (J33) | educational outcomes (I26) |
| incentives based on parental incentives (M52) | educational outcomes (I26) |