IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ecinqu/v63y2025i2p441-462.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Researchers' degrees of flexibility: Revisiting COVID‐19 policy evaluations

Author

Listed:
  • Joakim A. Weill
  • Matthieu Stigler
  • Olivier Deschenes
  • Michael R. Springborn

Abstract

Empirical research involves multiple, seemingly‐minor choices that can substantially impact a study's findings. While acknowledged, the importance of these “degrees of flexibility” on published estimates is not well understood. We examine the considerable literature focused on the impacts of early COVID‐19 policies on social distancing to assess the role of researchers' degrees of flexibility on the estimated effects of mobility‐reducing policies. We find that estimates reported in previous studies are not robust to minor changes in typically‐unexplored dimensions of the degree of flexibility space, and usual robustness tests systematically fail to detect these issues.

Suggested Citation

  • Joakim A. Weill & Matthieu Stigler & Olivier Deschenes & Michael R. Springborn, 2025. "Researchers' degrees of flexibility: Revisiting COVID‐19 policy evaluations," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 63(2), pages 441-462, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecinqu:v:63:y:2025:i:2:p:441-462
    DOI: 10.1111/ecin.13273
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ecin.13273
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ecin.13273?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ecinqu:v:63:y:2025:i:2:p:441-462. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/weaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.