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A simple approximation for evaluating external validity bias

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  • Andrews, Isaiah
  • Oster, Emily

Abstract

We develop a simple approximation that relates the total external validity bias in randomized trials to (i) bias from selection on observables and (ii) a measure for the role of treatment effect heterogeneity in driving selection into the experimental sample.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrews, Isaiah & Oster, Emily, 2019. "A simple approximation for evaluating external validity bias," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 58-62.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:178:y:2019:i:c:p:58-62
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2019.02.020
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Rajeev Dehejia & Cristian Pop-Eleches & Cyrus Samii, 2021. "From Local to Global: External Validity in a Fertility Natural Experiment," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 217-243, January.
    2. Robert B. Olsen & Larry L. Orr & Stephen H. Bell & Elizabeth A. Stuart, 2013. "External Validity in Policy Evaluations That Choose Sites Purposively," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(1), pages 107-121, January.
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    9. Alexander Gelber & Adam Isen & Judd B. Kessler, 2016. "The Effects of Youth Employment: Evidence from New York City Lotteries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(1), pages 423-460.
    10. Orazio Attanasio & Adriana Kugler & Costas Meghir, 2011. "Subsidizing Vocational Training for Disadvantaged Youth in Colombia: Evidence from a Randomized Trial," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(3), pages 188-220, July.
    11. Rachael Meager, 2019. "Understanding the Average Impact of Microcredit Expansions: A Bayesian Hierarchical Analysis of Seven Randomized Experiments," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 57-91, January.
    12. Elizabeth A. Stuart & Stephen R. Cole & Catherine P. Bradshaw & Philip J. Leaf, 2011. "The use of propensity scores to assess the generalizability of results from randomized trials," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 174(2), pages 369-386, April.
    13. Meager, Rachael, 2019. "Understanding the average impact of microcredit expansions: a Bayesian hierarchical analysis of seven randomized experiments," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 88190, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. Joseph Hotz, V. & Imbens, Guido W. & Mortimer, Julie H., 2005. "Predicting the efficacy of future training programs using past experiences at other locations," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 125(1-2), pages 241-270.
    15. Karthik Muralidharan & Venkatesh Sundararaman, 2011. "Teacher Performance Pay: Experimental Evidence from India," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 119(1), pages 39-77.
    16. Benjamin A. Olken & Junko Onishi & Susan Wong, 2014. "Should Aid Reward Performance? Evidence from a Field Experiment on Health and Education in Indonesia," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(4), pages 1-34, October.
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    Cited by:

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    3. Thomas Fujiwara & Karsten Müller & Carlo Schwarz, 2024. "The Effect of Social Media on Elections: Evidence from The United States," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 22(3), pages 1495-1539.
    4. Susan Athey & Raj Chetty & Guido W. Imbens & Hyunseung Kang, 2019. "The Surrogate Index: Combining Short-Term Proxies to Estimate Long-Term Treatment Effects More Rapidly and Precisely," NBER Working Papers 26463, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Daido Kido, 2022. "Distributionally Robust Policy Learning with Wasserstein Distance," Papers 2205.04637, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2022.
    6. Galiani, Sebastian & Quistorff, Brian, 2024. "Assessing external validity in practice," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(3).
    7. Takuya Ishihara & Toru Kitagawa, 2021. "Evidence Aggregation for Treatment Choice," Papers 2108.06473, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2024.
    8. Thomas Fujiwara & Karsten Müller & Carlo Schwarz, 2021. "The Effect of Social Media on Elections: Evidence from the United States," NBER Working Papers 28849, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Colnet Bénédicte & Josse Julie & Varoquaux Gaël & Scornet Erwan, 2022. "Causal effect on a target population: A sensitivity analysis to handle missing covariates," Journal of Causal Inference, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 372-414, January.
    10. Dalia Ghanem & Sarojini Hirshleifer & Karen Ortiz-Becerra, 2019. "Testing for Attrition Bias in Field Experiments," Working Papers 202010, University of California at Riverside, Department of Economics, revised Mar 2020.
    11. Naoki Egami & Erin Hartman, 2021. "Covariate selection for generalizing experimental results: Application to a large‐scale development program in Uganda," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 184(4), pages 1524-1548, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    External validity; Randomized trials;

    JEL classification:

    • C1 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General

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