Endogenous Stratification in Randomized Experiments

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Abadie, Alberto; Chingos, Matthew M.; West, Martin R.
• 署名单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Urban Institute; Harvard University
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_00732
• 发表日期: 2018-07
• 页码: 567-580
• 关键词: social experiments; program impacts; Heterogeneity; achievement; need

摘要

Policymakers are often interested in estimating how policy interventions affect the outcomes of those most in need of help. This concern has motivated the practice of disaggregating experimental results by groups constructed on the basis of an index of baseline characteristics that predicts the values of individual outcomes without the treatment. This paper shows that substantial biases may arise in practice if the index is estimated by regressing the outcome variable on baseline characteristics for the full sample of experimental controls. We propose alternative methods that correct this bias and show that they behave well in realistic scenarios.