RCTs establish causal claims. They are very good at this. Indeed, given the probabilistic theory of causality it follows formally that positive results in an ideal RCT with treatment C and outcome E deductively implies ‘C causes E in the experimental population’. Though the move from the RCT to a policy prediction that C will … … Continue reading
Statistics & Econometrics
No estimated causal results are thus affected solely by the intervention but by many other background attributes and conditions that can give rise to bias between, within or across trial groups. A number of these influence a treatment’s estimated causal effects both within and outside a trial setting. That these and other such demanding preconditions (concauses) would be […]
In his history of experimental social science — Randomistas: How radical researchers are changing our world — Andrew Leigh gives an introduction to the RCT (randomized controlled trial) method for conducting experiments in medicine, psychology, development economics, and policy evaluation. Although it mentions there are critiques that can be waged against it, the author does […]
Causal effects are comparisons of what did happen with what would have happened if people had received different treatments. Randomized treatment assignment has reduced this problem to the minor technical problem of drawing an inference about a finite population of people on the basis of a probability sample from that population. Expressed differently, if we […]
Yours truly, of course, feels truly honoured to find himself on the list of the world’s 25 Best Econometrics Blogs and Websites. 2. Bruno Rodrigues 8. Eran Raviv Blog Statistics and Econometrics 13. How the (Econometric) Sausage is Made 14. Lars P Syll Pålsson Syll received a Ph.D. in economic history in 1991 and a Ph.D. […]
Purchasing power parity doctrine is examined by sophisticated statistical and econometric techniques. The time series of aggregated price levels and the nominal exchange rates are treated as a random sample. Most papers of this type deal with the technical properties of the slightly different data sets. To take some examples (at random): “Two potential problems […]
Yours truly’s latest book has made it onto Amazon’s lists of best sellers in economics and econometrics. I am — of course — truly awed, honoured and delighted.