Mechanism experiments and policy evaluations

Description

"Randomized controlled trials are increasingly used to evaluate policies. How can we make these experiments as useful as possible for policy purposes? We argue greater use should be made of experiments that identify behavioral mechanisms that are central to clearly specified policy questions, what we call "mechanism experiments." These types of experiments can be of great policy value even if the intervention that is tested (or its setting) does not correspond exactly to any realistic policy option"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.

Subjects

Series Statement

• NBER working paper series -- working paper 17062
• Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) -- working paper no. 17062.

Links

• http://www.nber.org/papers/w17062