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 YouWin Program grants made Direct Entrepreneur Grants measurable. In 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.