On Minimizing the Risk of Bias in Randomized Controlled Trials in Economics

Estimation of empirical relationships is prone to bias. Economists have carefully studied sources of bias in structural and quasi-experimental approaches, but the randomized control trial (RCT) has only begun to receive such scrutiny. This paper ar...

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Main Authors:	Eble, Alex, Boone, Peter, Elbourne, Diana
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2016
Subjects:	randomization randomized control trials study design estimation bias
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/07/26579028/minimizing-risk-bias-randomized-controlled-trials-economics http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24828

id	okr-10986-24828
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-248282021-04-23T14:04:27Z On Minimizing the Risk of Bias in Randomized Controlled Trials in Economics Eble, Alex Boone, Peter Elbourne, Diana randomization randomized control trials study design estimation bias Estimation of empirical relationships is prone to bias. Economists have carefully studied sources of bias in structural and quasi-experimental approaches, but the randomized control trial (RCT) has only begun to receive such scrutiny. This paper argues that several lessons from medicine, derived from analysis of thousands of RCTs establishing a clear link between certain practices and biased estimates, can be used to reduce the risk of bias in economics RCTs. It identifies the subset of these lessons applicable to economics and uses them to assess risk of bias in estimates from economics RCTs published between 2001 and 2011. In comparison to medical studies, most economics studies examined do not report important details on study design necessary to assess risk of bias. Many report practices that suggest risk of bias, though this does not necessarily mean bias resulted. The paper concludes with suggestions on how to remedy these issues. 2016-08-09T16:44:50Z 2016-08-09T16:44:50Z 2016-07 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/07/26579028/minimizing-risk-bias-randomized-controlled-trials-economics http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24828 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7746 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English en_US
topic	randomization randomized control trials study design estimation bias
spellingShingle	randomization randomized control trials study design estimation bias Eble, Alex Boone, Peter Elbourne, Diana On Minimizing the Risk of Bias in Randomized Controlled Trials in Economics
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7746
description	Estimation of empirical relationships is prone to bias. Economists have carefully studied sources of bias in structural and quasi-experimental approaches, but the randomized control trial (RCT) has only begun to receive such scrutiny. This paper argues that several lessons from medicine, derived from analysis of thousands of RCTs establishing a clear link between certain practices and biased estimates, can be used to reduce the risk of bias in economics RCTs. It identifies the subset of these lessons applicable to economics and uses them to assess risk of bias in estimates from economics RCTs published between 2001 and 2011. In comparison to medical studies, most economics studies examined do not report important details on study design necessary to assess risk of bias. Many report practices that suggest risk of bias, though this does not necessarily mean bias resulted. The paper concludes with suggestions on how to remedy these issues.
format	Working Paper
author	Eble, Alex Boone, Peter Elbourne, Diana
author_facet	Eble, Alex Boone, Peter Elbourne, Diana
author_sort	Eble, Alex
title	On Minimizing the Risk of Bias in Randomized Controlled Trials in Economics
title_short	On Minimizing the Risk of Bias in Randomized Controlled Trials in Economics
title_full	On Minimizing the Risk of Bias in Randomized Controlled Trials in Economics
title_fullStr	On Minimizing the Risk of Bias in Randomized Controlled Trials in Economics
title_full_unstemmed	On Minimizing the Risk of Bias in Randomized Controlled Trials in Economics
title_sort	on minimizing the risk of bias in randomized controlled trials in economics
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2016
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/07/26579028/minimizing-risk-bias-randomized-controlled-trials-economics http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24828
_version_	1764457756336586752

On Minimizing the Risk of Bias in Randomized Controlled Trials in Economics

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