Replication Redux : The Reproducibility Crisis and the Case of Deworming

In 2004, a landmark study showed that an inexpensive medication to treat parasitic worms could improve health and school attendance for millions of children in many developing countries. Eleven years later, a headline in the Guardian reported that...

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Main Author:	Ozier, Owen
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2019
Subjects:	DATA ACCESS DEWORMING REPLICATION ECONOMIC ANALYSIS SYSTEMATIC REVIEW META-ANALYSIS
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/118271556632669793/Replication-Redux-The-Reproducibility-Crisis-and-the-Case-of-Deworming http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31600

id	okr-10986-31600
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-316002021-12-06T12:21:52Z Replication Redux : The Reproducibility Crisis and the Case of Deworming Ozier, Owen DATA ACCESS DEWORMING REPLICATION ECONOMIC ANALYSIS SYSTEMATIC REVIEW META-ANALYSIS In 2004, a landmark study showed that an inexpensive medication to treat parasitic worms could improve health and school attendance for millions of children in many developing countries. Eleven years later, a headline in the Guardian reported that this treatment, deworming, had been "debunked." The pronouncement followed an effort to replicate and re-analyze the original study, as well as an update to a systematic review of the effects of deworming. This story made waves amidst discussion of a reproducibility crisis in some of the social sciences. This paper explores what it means to "replicate" and "reanalyze" a study, both in general and in the specific case of deworming. The paper reviews the broader replication efforts in economics, then examines the key findings of the original deworming paper in light of the "replication," "reanalysis," and "systematic review." The paper also discusses the nature of the link between this single paper's findings, other papers' findings, and any policy recommendations about deworming. This example provides a perspective on the ways replication and reanalysis work, the strengths and weaknesses of systematic reviews, and whether there is, in fact, a reproducibility crisis in economics. 2019-05-02T18:39:28Z 2019-05-02T18:39:28Z 2019-04 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/118271556632669793/Replication-Redux-The-Reproducibility-Crisis-and-the-Case-of-Deworming http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31600 English Policy Research Working Paper;no. 8835 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
topic	DATA ACCESS DEWORMING REPLICATION ECONOMIC ANALYSIS SYSTEMATIC REVIEW META-ANALYSIS
spellingShingle	DATA ACCESS DEWORMING REPLICATION ECONOMIC ANALYSIS SYSTEMATIC REVIEW META-ANALYSIS Ozier, Owen Replication Redux : The Reproducibility Crisis and the Case of Deworming
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;no. 8835
description	In 2004, a landmark study showed that an inexpensive medication to treat parasitic worms could improve health and school attendance for millions of children in many developing countries. Eleven years later, a headline in the Guardian reported that this treatment, deworming, had been "debunked." The pronouncement followed an effort to replicate and re-analyze the original study, as well as an update to a systematic review of the effects of deworming. This story made waves amidst discussion of a reproducibility crisis in some of the social sciences. This paper explores what it means to "replicate" and "reanalyze" a study, both in general and in the specific case of deworming. The paper reviews the broader replication efforts in economics, then examines the key findings of the original deworming paper in light of the "replication," "reanalysis," and "systematic review." The paper also discusses the nature of the link between this single paper's findings, other papers' findings, and any policy recommendations about deworming. This example provides a perspective on the ways replication and reanalysis work, the strengths and weaknesses of systematic reviews, and whether there is, in fact, a reproducibility crisis in economics.
format	Working Paper
author	Ozier, Owen
author_facet	Ozier, Owen
author_sort	Ozier, Owen
title	Replication Redux : The Reproducibility Crisis and the Case of Deworming
title_short	Replication Redux : The Reproducibility Crisis and the Case of Deworming
title_full	Replication Redux : The Reproducibility Crisis and the Case of Deworming
title_fullStr	Replication Redux : The Reproducibility Crisis and the Case of Deworming
title_full_unstemmed	Replication Redux : The Reproducibility Crisis and the Case of Deworming
title_sort	replication redux : the reproducibility crisis and the case of deworming
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2019
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/118271556632669793/Replication-Redux-The-Reproducibility-Crisis-and-the-Case-of-Deworming http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31600
_version_	1764474698099326976

Replication Redux : The Reproducibility Crisis and the Case of Deworming

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