A Beginners Guide to Randomized Evaluations in Development Economics

Abstract

We present a practical guide to randomized impact evaluation in Development Economics for people who are interested in starting a field experiment for the first time. We provide an overview of the important steps in planning and implementing a randomized evaluation from beginning to end. The steps include issues such as research question development, local partner institution, institutional review board, pre-analysis plan, samplesize calculation, random sampling, randomization, survey implementation, data entry, and data analysis.