Optimal Design of Experiments in the Presence of Interference

Baird, Sarah ; Bohren, J. Aislinn ; McIntosh, Craig ; Ozler, Berk

The MIT Press

关键词: EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN;    CAUSAL INTERFERENCE;    SPILLOVER EFFECT;   

DOI  :  10.1162/REST_a_00716
RP-ID  :  126659

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

We formalize the optimal design of experiments when there is interference between units, i.e. an individual's outcome depends on the outcomes of others in her group. We focus on randomized saturation designs, two-stage experiments that first randomize treatment saturation of a group, then individual treatment assignment. We map the potential outcomes framework with partial interference to a regression model with clustered errors, calculate standard errors of randomized saturation designs, and derive analytical insights about the optimal design. We show that the power to detect average treatment effects declines precisely with the ability to identify novel treatment and spillover effects.