Ideal experiments: Benefits
- Serve as benchmark to uncover weaknesses in identification strategy
- Example from the ‘harsh’ reality: Yearly panel data (2004-2008)
- Random sample of swiss households (several individuals in each household)
- Treatment: Have you been insulted or threatened verbally since last interview? (0,1)
- Response: Would you say that most people can be trusted or that you can’t be too careful in dealing with people? (0-10)
- Ideal (thought) experiment reveals and emphasizes..
- Potentially non-random assignment of treatment (bias!)
- Non-random sample of individuals
- Sampling on household-level (Sutva?!)
- Repeated measures but no control over timing of measurement
- Potential attrition of units
- Surveys = self-reports