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Introducing New Contraceptives in Rural China: A Field Experiment

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  • Herbert L. Smith

    (University of Pennsylvania)

Abstract

The project on Introducing New Contraceptives in Rural China (INCRC) was carried out between 1991 and 1996 in four counties of rural north China. The experimental component involved the random assignment of a multipronged treatment to four townships in each county. Two townships per county served as controls. The scale of the project made it nearly impossible to maintain the integrity of the experimental model that was at the core of the project's design. In spite of the massive numbers of people in the catchment areas of the study (>100,000), the experimental design was of low power, with but eight controls on sixteen treatments; when random assignment is at higher levels of analysis, masses of individual observations only create greater precision in the estimation of higher-order observations. However, the study would not have been conducted, and valuable observations would not have been made, were it not conceived as an experiment.

Suggested Citation

  • Herbert L. Smith, 2005. "Introducing New Contraceptives in Rural China: A Field Experiment," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 599(1), pages 246-271, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:599:y:2005:i:1:p:246-271
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716205274513
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    3. Herbert L. Smith, 2003. "Some Thoughts on Causation as It Relates to Demography and Population Studies," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 29(3), pages 459-469, September.
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    5. James J. Heckman, 2001. "Micro Data, Heterogeneity, and the Evaluation of Public Policy: Nobel Lecture," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 109(4), pages 673-748, August.
    6. M. Giovanna Merli & Zhenchao Qian & Herbert L. Smith, 2004. "Adaptation of a Political Bureaucracy to Economic and Institutional Change Under Socialism: The Chinese State Family Planning System," Politics & Society, , vol. 32(2), pages 231-256, June.
    7. M. Merli & Adrian Raftery, 2000. "Are births underreported in rural China? Manipulation of statistical records in response to China’s population policies," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 37(1), pages 109-126, February.
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