NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH
NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH

So you want to run an experiment, now what? Some Simple Rules of Thumb for Optimal Experimental Design

John A. List, Sally Sadoff, Mathis Wagner

NBER Working Paper No. 15701*
Issued in January 2010
NBER Program(s):   EEE    LS    PE

Experimental economics represents a strong growth industry. In the past several decades the method has expanded beyond intellectual curiosity, now meriting consideration alongside the other more traditional empirical approaches used in economics. Accompanying this growth is an influx of new experimenters who are in need of straightforward direction to make their designs more powerful. This study provides several simple rules of thumb that researchers can apply to improve the efficiency of their experimental designs. We buttress these points by including empirical examples from the literature.

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