The politics of experimentation: Political competition and randomized controlled trials

Research Deserts and Oases: Evidence from 27 Thousand Economics Journal Articles on Africa*

“…When applicable, I use analogous covariates to those from these two papers and compare my results from the more recent African sample to those from the older global samples. My findings on political institutions are also consistent with results from Blair, Iyengar and Shapiro (2013), who find that more randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are conducted in countries that are more democratic, and Corduneanu‐Huci, Dorsch and Marek (2021), who find that RCT incidence is correlated with more competitive political environments. In contrast to most of the previous literature, I also provide evidence on the subnational distribution of research across regions within countries.…”

“…24 Third, given the lengthy publication process in economics journals, an article is more likely to be affected by the values of covariates several years prior to publication (during data collection, for instance) than by their values during the year of publication itself, and the appropriate lag likely varies by article. Corduneanu-Huci et al (2021) lag their independent variables by 4 years following evidence from Cameron et al (2016) that RCTs average 4 years between data collection and publication. I present results below using both no lag and a 4-year lag of the covariates.…”

“…Corduneanu‐Huci et al . (2021) lag their independent variables by 4 years following evidence from Cameron et al . (2016) that RCTs average 4 years between data collection and publication.…”

“…Corduneanu-Huci et al (2021), for instance, find that RCTs are more likely to occur in politically competitive jurisdictions, in which local politicians seek to use research to justify or critique existing or proposed policies Das (2020). argues that research should be interpreted within its larger political context, which influences how much is done, which questions are asked, and how results are interpreted and used.…”

What, Where, Who, and Why? An Empirical Investigation of Positionality in Political Science Field Experiments

“…Wealthier democratic countries with English, Spanish, or French as their main spoken language were more likely to be studied (Wilson and Knutsen 2020). An emerging literature also demonstrates that field experiments are more likely to occur in certain contexts (i.e., political, geographical, and institutional) (Blair, Iyengar, and Shapiro 2013; Corduneanu-Huci, Dorsch, and Maarek 2021; Das 2020). Our data optimistically show that the sites of experimentation diversified to more than 100 countries between 2014 and 2019.…”