Field Experiments in Economics:  The Past, The Present, and The Future

Levitt, Steven D.; List, John A.

doi:10.3386/w14356

Cited by 102 publications

(99 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…"By a well-known statistical theorem s 2 z = s 2 x + s 2 y + 2r xy s x s y where r xy is the correlation coefficient between X and Y" (Friedman,. Other things equal, the effect of the "stabilizing" action depends in large part on the magnitude of the correlation coefficient, just as Friedman and others after Student and Pearson have demonstrated in a vast body of literature ignored by new field experimentalists, notably, Levitt and List (2009), Banerjee and Duflo (2011), and Karlan and List (2007). 79 Student (1923), p. 273. even from inch to inch.…”

Section: Pearson's Illustration Of the Higher Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other primary sources include: published articles, scientific notebooks, memoranda, and correspondence 24 as well as annual reports, brewers' reports, and financial statements. 22 Most field experiments in economics published since the 1990s are unaware of the bias and cost introduced to their experiments by artificial randomization: see, for example, Levitt and List (2009). Contrast Ziliak ( , 2010, Harrison (2011), andBruhn andMcKenzie (2009).…”

Section: Note On Methods and Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When the great experimental maltster and barley farmer, Edwin S. Beaven, died (in 1941) Guinness acquired ownership and continued to produce at the famous farm and malt house in Warminster, UK (http:// www.warminster-malt.co.uk/history.php). Contrast the new field experiments in economics, neither repeated nor balanced, yet full of advice for going concerns (Herberich, Levitt and List (2009), Levitt and List (2009), Banerjee and Duflo (2011), and by now hundreds of others). 76 Gosset (1936) Given the systematic way that the sun, wind, water, and other environmental features -such as rabbit holes and fertility gradients -affect growth potential in a given block or sub-block of the agricultural plot, the spatial closeness and symmetry of ABBA maximizes the size of r -exactly what the analyst wants when high power, efficiency, and equal balance of confounding errors are goals.…”

Section: Pearson's Illustration Of the Higher Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…215-216; italics supplied; see also: Gosset (1905), Guinness Archives, file GDB/BRO/1102. 30 Levitt and List (2009), p. 4, n5, claim surprisingly that "Gossett" [sic] published as "Student" because the "Guiness" [sic] "brewery did not allow employees to publish their research" (p. 4). Guinness brewers were not allowed to use their real name -and they were not allowed to mention Guinness or beer -in print, true.…”

Section: Net Pecuniary Advantage and The Purpose Of The Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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W.S. Gosset and Some Neglected Concepts in Experimental Statistics: Guinnessometrics II

Ziliak

2011

J Wine Econ

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Student's exacting theory of errors, both random and real, marked a significant advance over ambiguous reports of plant life and fermentation asserted by chemists from Priestley and Lavoisier down to Pasteur and Johannsen, working at the Carlsberg Laboratory. One reason seems to be that William Sealy Gosset (1876–1937) aka “Student” – he of Student'st-table and test of statistical significance – rejected artificial rules about sample size, experimental design, and the level of significance, and took instead an economic approach to the logic of decisions made under uncertainty. In his job as Apprentice Brewer, Head Experimental Brewer, and finally Head Brewer of Guinness, Student produced small samples of experimental barley, malt, and hops, seeking guidance for industrial quality control and maximum expected profit at the large scale brewery. In the process Student invented or inspired half of modern statistics. This article draws on original archival evidence, shedding light on several core yet neglected aspects of Student's methods, that is, Guinnessometrics, not discussed by Ronald A. Fisher (1890–1962). The focus is on Student's small sample, economic approach to real error minimization, particularly in field and laboratory experiments he conducted on barley and malt, 1904 to 1937. Balanced designs of experiments, he found, are more efficient than random and have higher power to detect large and real treatment differences in a series of repeated and independent experiments. Student's world-class achievement poses a challenge to every science. Should statistical methods – such as the choice of sample size, experimental design, and level of significance – follow the purpose of the experiment, rather than the other way around? (JEL classification codes: C10, C90, C93, L66)

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Section: Pearson's Illustration Of the Higher Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Note On Methods and Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Pearson's Illustration Of the Higher Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Net Pecuniary Advantage and The Purpose Of The Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

W.S. Gosset and Some Neglected Concepts in Experimental Statistics: Guinnessometrics II

Ziliak

2011

J Wine Econ

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“…One way to account for counterfactual development is to conduct studies in which the circumstances affecting firm behavior are controlled. Experiments, both laboratory and field experiments, are therefore becoming more popular in economic research as they enable researchers to assess, for instance, the impact of a specific regulatory measure on firm behavior, holding all other factors equal (Levitt and List 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectiveness of regulatory interventions on firm behavior: a randomized field experiment with e-commerce firms

Huizingh

Mulder

2015

Small Bus Econ

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Economic regulators use various instruments to stimulate SMEs to change their behavior, but limited evidence exists on the effectiveness of such interventions. We analyze the effectiveness of three ways of providing e-commerce firms guidance about the legal rules on information disclosure. The initial non-compliance is considerable. In two interventions, firm-specific guidance is given by post mail and by e-mail, respectively; in another intervention, guidance on industry level is given by means of dedicated publications and presentations. In all cases, the guidance was given on behalf of the regulatory authority. The effectiveness of the firm-specific guidance is measured through a randomized field experiment, while for the industry guidance a panel analysis is conducted. We find that sending the firms a letter by post mail slightly improved firm compliance, but overall the various forms of guidance appear to be ineffective. Although information-related interventions are commonly used in practice, such regulatory interventions can fail to influence the behavior of SMEs.

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Field experiments in strategy research

Chatterji

Findley

Jensen³

et al. 2015

Strategic Management Journal

130

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. www.econstor.eu The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E SIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author.IZA Discussion Paper No. 8705 December 2014 ABSTRACT Field Experiments in Strategy Research *Strategy research often aims to empirically establish a causal relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable such as firm performance. For many important strategy research questions, however, traditional empirical techniques are not sufficient to establish causal effects with high confidence. We propose that field experiments have potential to be used more widely in strategy research, leveraging methodological innovations from other disciplines to address persistent puzzles in the literature. We first review the advantages and disadvantages of using field experiments to answer questions in strategy. We define two types of experiments, "strategy field experiments" and "process field experiments," and present an original example of each variety. The first study explores the liability of foreignness and the second study tests theories regarding corporate culture.JEL Classification: C93, D03, L10

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Field Experiments in Economics: The Past, The Present, and The Future

Cited by 102 publications

References 72 publications

W.S. Gosset and Some Neglected Concepts in Experimental Statistics: Guinnessometrics II

W.S. Gosset and Some Neglected Concepts in Experimental Statistics: Guinnessometrics II

Effectiveness of regulatory interventions on firm behavior: a randomized field experiment with e-commerce firms

Field experiments in strategy research

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