Selective Trials: A Principal-Agent Approach to Randomized Controlled Experiments

Erik Snowberg, Padró i Miquel, Gerard and Sylvain Chassang

No 8003, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: We study the design of randomized controlled experiments in environments where outcomes are significantly affected by unobserved effort decisions taken by the subjects (agents). While standard randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are internally consistent, the unobservability of effort provision compromises external validity. We approach trial design as a principal-agent problem and show that natural extensions of RCTs--which we call selective trials--can help improve the external validity of experiments. In particular, selective trials can disentangle the effects of treatment, effort, and the interaction of treatment and effort. Moreover, they can help experimenters identify when measured treatment effects are affected by erroneous beliefs and inappropriate effort provision.

Keywords: Blind trials; Compliance; Heterogeneous beliefs; Incentivized trials; Marginal treatment e ects; Mechanism design; Randomized controlled trials; Selection; Selective trials (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C81 C93 D82 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-09
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP8003 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Journal Article: Selective Trials: A Principal-Agent Approach to Randomized Controlled Experiments (2012)
Working Paper: Selective Trials: A Principal-Agent Approach to Randomized Controlled Experiments (2010)
Working Paper: Selective Trials: A Principal-Agent Approach to Randomized Controlled Experiments (2010)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8003

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP8003

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().