This paper examines the rationale for field experimentation in economics and considers some of the main criticisms leveled at experiments in recent years. Academics have attacked experiments for a wide range of real and imagined sins. Recent experimental designers have taken past criticisms into account and sought to address some of the most serious ones through impoved experimental design. In spite of recent criticisms, classical experimentation on a modest scale has become an accepted part of policy evaluation in the United States. The essential reason is that policymakers and many social scientists find experimental results easier to understand—and ultimately more convincing—than results from most other kinds of policy evaluation.
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Bibliography: Burtless, Gary. 1995. "The Case for Randomized Field Trials in Economic and Policy Research." Journal of Economic Perspectives 9(2):63-84.
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