Experimental Estimation of Heterogeneous Treatment Effects Related to Self-Selection

Social scientists widely regard the random-assignment experiment as the gold standard for making causal inferences about the world. We argue that it can be improved. For situations in which self-selection and heterogeneity of treatment effects exist, an alternative experimental design that retains r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	American journal of political science Vol. 55; no. 3; pp. 724 - 736
Main Authors:	Gaines, Brian J., Kuklinski, James H.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Malden, USA Blackwell Publishing Inc 01-07-2011 Wiley Subscription Services Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Subjects:	Advertising campaigns AJPS WORKSHOP Causality Design of experiments Estimation Experiment design Experiments Field experiments Heterogeneity Observational research Observational studies Political advertising Political campaigns Political science Self-evaluation Social research Social Scientists Social theory Sociology Voter turnout Voting
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Social scientists widely regard the random-assignment experiment as the gold standard for making causal inferences about the world. We argue that it can be improved. For situations in which self-selection and heterogeneity of treatment effects exist, an alternative experimental design that retains random assignment to treatment or control and supplements it with some self-selection of condition offers a clear advantage. It reveals the average treatment effect while also allowing estimation of the distinct effects of the treatment on those apt and inapt to experience the treatment outside the experimental context.
Bibliography:	ArticleID:AJPS518 ark:/67375/WNG-LMT872WJ-M istex:508EC6D29C95F9886543C1887888AA20B784AFCD kuklinsk@illinois.edu Brian J. Gaines is the Matthew T. McClure Professor at the University of Illinois, where they both hold appointments in the Department of Political Science and the Institute of Government and Public Affairs, 1007 W. Nevada St., Urbana, IL 61801. can be accessed as a Stata file at We are very grateful to numerous audiences and individuals for helpful advice, including but not limited to Jake Bowers, Jason Coronel, Tiberiu Dragu, Jamie Druckman, Mark Frederickson, Matthew Hayes, Jude Hays, Rebecca Morton, Tom Rudolph, Jas Sekhon, Lynn Vavreck, the editor, and four anonymous referees. We are especially indebted to Don Green for many helpful suggestions. The data analyzed in https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/bjgaines/replication%20data/ Table 2 bjgaines@illinois.edu is an Associate Professor and James H. Kuklinski . ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-2 ObjectType-Feature-1
ISSN:	0092-5853 1540-5907
DOI:	10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00518.x