Randomized Controlled Trials

Randomized controlled trials are the research method foregrounded in Piles of cash and a town of solutions in Kenya, Nigeria (Summer School). The episode defines the method as randomly splitting a study population so one group receives an intervention and another similar group does not, making later differences easier to attribute to the intervention.

The source presents two development-economics uses. In Nigeria, randomizing many [[YouWinProgram|YouWin Program]] grants made Direct Entrepreneur Grants measurable. In [[BusiaKenya|Busia]], Michael Kremer, Ted Miguel, Pascaline Dupas, and others used trials to test textbooks, deworming, and HIV-risk education.

Key Claims

• Random assignment can reduce selection bias when comparing participants and non-participants.
• Negative or mixed results are useful: the Busia textbook trial helped reveal that textbooks alone did not raise average test scores.
• Trial results can change spending priorities, as with Remedial Education Targeting and Deworming as Human Capital Investment.
• The method creates Development Research Ethics questions when local people bear study participation while policy adoption or knowledge gains may accrue elsewhere.

Connections

• Development Economics and Evidence-Based Development Policy - field and policy-translation frame.
• Scientific Self-Correction, Observation Before Inference, and Replication Crisis - broader evidence-quality branches in the wiki.
• David McKenzie, Michael Kremer, Carol Nkesa, and World Bank - source actors and institutions.