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Block What You Can, Except When You Shouldn’t

Author

Listed:
  • Nicole E. Pashley

    (Rutgers University)

  • Luke W. Miratrix

    (1812Harvard University)

Abstract

Several branches of the potential outcome causal inference literature have discussed the merits of blocking versus complete randomization. Some have concluded it can never hurt the precision of estimates, and some have concluded it can hurt. In this article, we reconcile these apparently conflicting views, give a more thorough discussion of what guarantees no harm, and discuss how other aspects of a blocked design can cost, all in terms of estimator precision. We discuss how the different findings are due to different sampling models and assumptions of how the blocks were formed. We also connect these ideas to common misconceptions; for instance, we show that analyzing a blocked experiment as if it were completely randomized, a seemingly conservative method, can actually backfire in some cases. Overall, we find that blocking can have a price but that this price is usually small and the potential for gain can be large. It is hard to go too far wrong with blocking.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicole E. Pashley & Luke W. Miratrix, 2022. "Block What You Can, Except When You Shouldn’t," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 47(1), pages 69-100, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jedbes:v:47:y:2022:i:1:p:69-100
    DOI: 10.3102/10769986211027240
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kari Lock Morgan & Donald B. Rubin, 2015. "Rerandomization to Balance Tiers of Covariates," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 110(512), pages 1412-1421, December.
    2. Miratrix, Luke W. & Sekhon, Jasjeet S. & Theodoridis, Alexander G. & Campos, Luis F., 2018. "Worth Weighting? How to Think About and Use Weights in Survey Experiments," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(3), pages 275-291, July.
    3. Luke W. Miratrix & Jasjeet S. Sekhon & Bin Yu, 2013. "Adjusting treatment effect estimates by post-stratification in randomized experiments," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 75(2), pages 369-396, March.
    4. Nicole E. Pashley & Luke W. Miratrix, 2021. "Insights on Variance Estimation for Blocked and Matched Pairs Designs," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 46(3), pages 271-296, June.
    5. Kosuke Imai & Gary King & Elizabeth A. Stuart, 2008. "Misunderstandings between experimentalists and observationalists about causal inference," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 171(2), pages 481-502, April.
    6. Imbens,Guido W. & Rubin,Donald B., 2015. "Causal Inference for Statistics, Social, and Biomedical Sciences," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521885881, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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