Field Experiments in Political Science and Public Policy

Field Experiments in Political Science and Public Policy PDF Author: Peter John
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317680170
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Field experiments -- randomized controlled trials -- have become ever more popular in political science, as well as in other disciplines, such as economics, social policy and development. Policy-makers have also increasingly used randomization to evaluate public policies, designing trials of tax reminders, welfare policies and international aid programs to name just a few of the interventions tested in this way. Field experiments have become successful because they assess causal claims in ways that other methods of evaluation find hard to emulate. Social scientists and evaluators have rediscovered how to design and analyze field experiments, but they have paid much less attention to the challenges of organizing and managing them. Field experiments pose unique challenges and opportunities for the researcher and evaluator which come from working in the field. The research experience can be challenging and at times hard to predict. This book aims to help researchers and evaluators plan and manage their field experiments so they can avoid common pitfalls. It is also intended to open up discussion about the context and backdrop to trials so that these practical aspects of field experiments are better understood. The book sets out ten steps researchers can use to plan their field experiments, then nine threats to watch out for when they implement them. There are cases studies of voting and political participation, elites, welfare and employment, nudging citizens, and developing countries.

Field Experiments in Political Science and Public Policy

Field Experiments in Political Science and Public Policy PDF Author: Peter John
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317680170
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Field experiments -- randomized controlled trials -- have become ever more popular in political science, as well as in other disciplines, such as economics, social policy and development. Policy-makers have also increasingly used randomization to evaluate public policies, designing trials of tax reminders, welfare policies and international aid programs to name just a few of the interventions tested in this way. Field experiments have become successful because they assess causal claims in ways that other methods of evaluation find hard to emulate. Social scientists and evaluators have rediscovered how to design and analyze field experiments, but they have paid much less attention to the challenges of organizing and managing them. Field experiments pose unique challenges and opportunities for the researcher and evaluator which come from working in the field. The research experience can be challenging and at times hard to predict. This book aims to help researchers and evaluators plan and manage their field experiments so they can avoid common pitfalls. It is also intended to open up discussion about the context and backdrop to trials so that these practical aspects of field experiments are better understood. The book sets out ten steps researchers can use to plan their field experiments, then nine threats to watch out for when they implement them. There are cases studies of voting and political participation, elites, welfare and employment, nudging citizens, and developing countries.

Field Experiments in Comparative Politics and Policy

Field Experiments in Comparative Politics and Policy PDF Author: Donald P. Green
Publisher: SAGE Publications, Incorporated
ISBN: 9781412987264
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Standing on the methodological frontier of field experimentation, researchers studying politics face a unique set of challenges. How do field researchers interact with policymakers, public officials, and funding agencies? How do they ensure high standards in the generation and reporting of empirical results? How can they redefine the role that experimental methodology plays in the study of politics today? This volume of The ANNALS addresses these questions, examining the use and application of the field experiment method in political science and presenting the state of the art in this important field. This important volume of The ANNALS features provocative and insightful contributions that reflect the ways that field researchers, in an international context, use the method in novel ways and tackle more subtle challenges of design and analysis. This volume is a must-read for researchers of politics and policy – especially those ready to expand the substantive and methodological frontiers of field experimentation. It is also a valuable resource for political scholars and policymakers.

Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Political Science

Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Political Science PDF Author: James N. Druckman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521192129
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 577

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Book Description
This volume provides the first comprehensive overview of how political scientists have used experiments to transform their field of study.

Advances in Experimental Political Science

Advances in Experimental Political Science PDF Author: James N. Druckman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108478506
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 671

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Book Description
Novel collection of essays addressing contemporary trends in political science, covering a broad array of methodological and substantive topics.

Field Research in Political Science

Field Research in Political Science PDF Author: Diana Kapiszewski
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107006031
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 471

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Book Description
This book explains how field research contributes value to political science by exploring scholars' experiences, detailing exemplary practices, and asserting key principles.

Political Science Research in Practice

Political Science Research in Practice PDF Author: Akan Malici
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351401890
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
Nothing rings truer to those teaching political science research methods: students hate taking this course. Tackle the challenge and turn the standard research methods teaching model on its head with Political Science Research in Practice. Akan Malici and Elizabeth S. Smith engage students first with pressing political questions and then demonstrate how a researcher has gone about answering them, walking them through real political science research that contributors have conducted. Through the exemplary use of a comparative case study, field research, interviews, textual and interpretive research, statistical research, survey research, public policy and program evaluation, content analysis, and field experiments, each chapter introduces students to a method of empirical inquiry through a specific topic that will spark their interest and curiosity. Each chapter shows the process of developing a research question, how and why a particular method was used, and the rewards and challenges discovered along the way. Students can better appreciate why we need a science of politics—why methods matter—with these first-hand, issue-based discussions. The second edition now includes: Two completely new chapters on field experiments and a chapter on the textual/interpretative method. New topics, ranging from the Arab Spring to political torture to politically sensitive research in China to social networking and voter turnout. Revised and updated "Exercises and Discussion Questions" sections. Revised and updated "Interested to Know More" and "Recommended Resources" sections.

Advances in Experimental Political Science

Advances in Experimental Political Science PDF Author: James N. Druckman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108804373
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 671

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Book Description
Experimental political science has changed. In two short decades, it evolved from an emergent method to an accepted method to a primary method. The challenge now is to ensure that experimentalists design sound studies and implement them in ways that illuminate cause and effect. Ethical boundaries must also be respected, results interpreted in a transparent manner, and data and research materials must be shared to ensure others can build on what has been learned. This book explores the application of new designs; the introduction of novel data sources, measurement approaches, and statistical methods; the use of experiments in more substantive domains; and discipline-wide discussions about the robustness, generalizability, and ethics of experiments in political science. By exploring these novel opportunities while also highlighting the concomitant challenges, this volume enables scholars and practitioners to conduct high-quality experiments that will make key contributions to knowledge.

Ethics and Experiments

Ethics and Experiments PDF Author: Scott Desposato
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317438663
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
For most of political science's history, discussions about professional ethics had nothing to do with human subjects. Professional ethics involved integrity in the classroom, fair tenure and promotion rule, and the careful avoidance of plagiarism. As most research was observational, there was little need for attention to how scholarly activities might directly affect the subjects of our work. Times have changed. The dramatic growth in the use of experiments in social science, especially overseas, is generating unexpected ethical controversies. The purpose of this volume is to identify, debate, and propose practical solutions to the most critical of these new ethical issues. A leading team of internationally distinguished political science scholars presents the first examination of the practical and ethical challenges of research with human subjects in social science and policy studies. Part 1 examines contextual challenges provided by experiments conducted overseas - questions of culture, religion, security, and poverty. Part 2 examines questions of legal constraints on research, focusing on questions of foreign review of international experiments. Part 3 tackles the critical issues in field experiments, including deception and consent, impact on elections and careers, the boundaries of the public officials' exemption, and the use of partner organizations to avoid Institutional Review Body (IRB) review. Part 4 considers strategies for the future, including training and education, IRB reform, institutional changes, and norm development.

The Public Policy Theory Primer

The Public Policy Theory Primer PDF Author: Kevin B. Smith
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429973985
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Public policy is a broad and interdisciplinary area of study and research in the field tends to reflect this. Yet for those teaching and studying public policy, the disjointed nature of the field can be confusing and cumbersome. This text provides a consistent and coherent framework for uniting the field of public policy. Authors Kevin B. Smith and Christopher W. Larimer offer an organized and comprehensive overview of the core questions and concepts, major theoretical frameworks, primary methodological approaches, and key controversies and debates in each subfield of policy studies from the policy process and policy analysis to program evaluation and policy implementation. The third edition has been updated throughout to include the latest scholarship and approaches in the field, including new and expanded coverage of behavioral economics, the narrative policy framework, Fourth Generation implementation studies, the policy regime approach, field experiments, and the debate of program versus policy implementation studies. Now with an appendix of sample comprehensive exam questions, The Public Policy Theory Primer remains an indispensable text for the systematic study of public policy.

Experimental Political Science and the Study of Causality

Experimental Political Science and the Study of Causality PDF Author: Rebecca B. Morton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139490532
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 607

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Book Description
Increasingly, political scientists use the term 'experiment' or 'experimental' to describe their empirical research. One of the primary reasons for doing so is the advantage of experiments in establishing causal inferences. In this book, Rebecca B. Morton and Kenneth C. Williams discuss in detail how experiments and experimental reasoning with observational data can help researchers determine causality. They explore how control and random assignment mechanisms work, examining both the Rubin causal model and the formal theory approaches to causality. They also cover general topics in experimentation such as the history of experimentation in political science; internal and external validity of experimental research; types of experiments - field, laboratory, virtual, and survey - and how to choose, recruit, and motivate subjects in experiments. They investigate ethical issues in experimentation, the process of securing approval from institutional review boards for human subject research, and the use of deception in experimentation.