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What Can Experiments Tell Us About How to Improve Government Performance?

Gisselquist, Rachel M.; Niño-Zarazúa, Miguel

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Authors

Rachel M. Gisselquist



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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