Rachel M. Gisselquist
What Can Experiments Tell Us About How to Improve Government Performance?
Gisselquist, Rachel M.; Niño-Zarazúa, Miguel
Abstract
In recent years, experimental methods have been both highly celebrated, and roundly criticized, as a means of addressing core questions in the social sciences. They have received particular attention in the analysis of development interventions. This paper focuses on two key questions: (1) what have been the main contributions of RCTs to the study of government performance? and (2) what could be the contributions, and relatedly the limits? It draws inter alia on a new systematic review of experimental and quasi-experimental studies on governance to consider both the contributions and limits of RCTs in the extant literature. A final section introduces the studies included in this symposium in light of this discussion. Collectively, the studies push beyond polarized debates over experimental methods towards a new middle ground, considering both how experimental work can better address identified weaknesses and how experimental and non-experimental techniques can be combined most fruitfully.
Citation
Gisselquist, R. M., & Niño-Zarazúa, M. (2015). What Can Experiments Tell Us About How to Improve Government Performance?. Journal of Globalization and Development, 6(1), 1-45. https://doi.org/10.1515/jgd-2014-0011
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Nov 1, 2014 |
Publication Date | May 16, 2015 |
Deposit Date | Jun 26, 2022 |
Publicly Available Date | Jun 26, 2022 |
Journal | Journal of Globalization and Development |
Electronic ISSN | 1948-1837 |
Publisher | De Gruyter |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 6 |
Issue | 1 |
Pages | 1-45 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1515/jgd-2014-0011 |
Keywords | development; governance; randomized controlled trials |
Publisher URL | https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/jgd-2014-0011/html |
Related Public URLs | https://www.wider.unu.edu/publication/what-can-experiments-tell-us-about-how-improve-governance-0 |
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10.1515_jgd-2014-0011.pdf
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Licence
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
WP2013-077.pdf
(638 Kb)
PDF
Version
WIDER Working Paper No. 2013/077
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