Comments on: On development experiments

By: Scarlett Lion | Going dot com

Scarlett Lion | Going dot com — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:30:13 +0000

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By: Scarlett Lion - Going dot com

Scarlett Lion - Going dot com — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:20:59 +0000

[...] out his new site for Lenin cakes, development experiments, and a belly proof golden [...]

By: texasinafrica

texasinafrica — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:14:55 +0000

Isn't the type of aid being delivered in an RCT also really important? It's one thing to randomize who gets, say, access to some kind of new agricultural technology and quite another to make it clear to a group of people that they won't be getting lifesaving medication or a mosquito net. Granted, those are oversimplifications and obviously we don't test medications. And as you point out, the alternative isn't much better.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 02:29:45 +0000

Thank you so much for putting so well the sense that I think most people have. No, it isn't perfect, but we can't wait for perfect–and in the end, being more transparent and collecting more data shouldn't be criticized when the real counterfactual is just as imperfect, with a lower potential for good.