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Improving precision through design and analysis in experiments with noncompliance

Even in the best-designed experiment, noncompliance can complicate analysis. While the intent-to-treat effect remains identified, randomization alone no longer identifies the complier average causal effect (CACE). Instrumental variables (IV) approaches, which rely on the exclusion restriction, can suffer from high variance, particularly when the experiment has a low compliance rate. We provide a framework which broadens the set of design and analysis techniques political science researchers can use when addressing noncompliance...

Multilevel calibration weighting for survey data

A pressing challenge in modern survey research is to find calibration weights when covariates are high dimensional and especially when interactions between variables are important...

Sensitivity Analysis for Survey Weights

Survey weighting allows researchers to account for bias in survey samples, due to unit nonresponse or convenience sampling, using measured demographic covariates. Unfortunately, in practice, it is impossible...

Leveraging Population Outcomes to Improve the Generalization of Experimental Results

Generalizing causal estimates in randomized experiments to a broader target population is essential for guiding decisions by policymakers and practitioners in the social and biomedical sciences. While recent papers developed various weighting estimators for the population average treatment effect (PATE), many of these methods result in large variance because the experimental sample...

Elements of External Validity: Framework, Design, and Analysis

External validity of randomized experiments is a focus of long-standing debates in the social sciences. While the issue has been extensively studied...

Impact Evaluation of the LAPD Community Safety Partnership

In 2011, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), in conjunction with other governmental and nonprofit groups, launched the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) in several public housing developments in Los Angeles. Following a relationship-based policing model...

Covariate Selection for Generalizing Experimental Results: Application to a Large-Scale Development Program in Uganda

Scientists are often interested in generalizing causal effects estimated in an experiment to a target population. However, analysts are often constrained by available covariate information...

Equivalence Testing for Regression Discontinuity Designs

Regression discontinuity (RD) designs are increasingly common in political science. They have many advantages, including a known and observable treatment assignment mechanism. The literature has emphasized the need for "falsification tests" and ways to assess the validity of the design. ...

An Equivalence Approach to Balance and Placebo Tests

Recent emphasis on credible causal designs has led to the expectation that scholars justify their research designs by testing the plausibility of their causal identification assumptions, often through balance and placebo tests. Yet current practice...

Dead Man Walking: The Affective Roots of Issue Proximity Between Voters and Parties

Do voters like the party they already agree with or do they agree with the party they already like? Previous studies have suggested a link...