This repo is created for the Seminar on An Introduction to Conducting Experiments in the Field for the students of International Max Planck Research School, BeSmart.

Date: 23-24 August, 2021

Conducting field experiments requires both practical and statistical methods. Researchers have to be familiar with tools and processes for designing and implementing experiments in the field. This course introduces research practices and hand-on tools geared towards providing technical skills to researchers. We will focus on measurement in the field and how to minimize errors when collecting data. We will discuss examples of participant ideas for field experiments in the latter part of the course.

The GitHub repository will contain list of readings and preparation details for example discussion. Participants would benefit from having Stata and R (with R Studio) installed on their computers.

In the documents folder you will find a form which can be used to cover all the aspects of research design. Before the class, think of a research idea that you want to implement and fill the form accordingly. We will discuss ideas from your forms in the last session. If there are fields that you are very unsure about, we can take them up during the discussion.

In case you do not have a research idea that you want to implement, you can also make this a fictional research idea that takes place in a (known) fictional world. We may make you explain the idea and fictional world during the discussion.

Examples of field experiment ideas in the Harry Potter world:

• Do information campaigns decrease the discrimination towards house elves?
• Non-monetary points system vs monetary rewards to control conduct of students at Hogwarts

August 23rd: 10:00 -11:00

Research Design Process

• Why field experiments?
• Timeline of field experiments
• Finding partners, practitioners, and implementors
• Ethics of randomization and IRB

1. List, John A., and Steven Levitt. 2006. "What Do Laboratory Experiments Tell Us About the Real World?" University of Chicago and NBER.

2. Harrison, Glenn and John A. List. 2004. "Field Experiments." Journal of Economic Literature, XLII: 1013-1059.

3. Duflo, Esther, Abhijit Banerjee, Rachel Glennerster, and Michael Kremer. 2006. “Using Randomization in Development Economics: A Toolkit.” in Handbook of Development Economics.

4. Bruhn, Miriam and David McKenzie. 2008. "In Pursuit of Balance." The World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4752.

5. Beecher, Henry K. "Ethics and Clinical Research." New England Journal of Medicine (1966).

--Break 15 mins--

August 23rd: 11:15 -12:15

Measurement and Minimizing Errors

• Survey design and instruments
• Data collection tools
• Sample and power
• Threats to internal validity

1. Deaton, Angus. 1997. The Analysis of Household Surveys. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press for the World Bank.

2. Miguel, Edward and Michael Kremer. 2004. “Worms: Identifying Impacts on Education and Health in the Presence of Treatment Externalities.” Econometrica, 72 (1): 159-217. (NBER Working Paper #8481, August 2001).

August 24th: 10:00-11:00

Causal Inference and Hypothesis Testing

• Estimating effects
• Statistical tools

1. Gerber and Green, Field Experiments. Chapter 3: Sampling Distributions, Statistical Inference, and Hypothesis Testing.

--Break 15 mins--

August 24th: 11:15-12:15

Discussion of Examples and Ripe Areas for Research

• Participants discuss ideas
• Examples from past experiment