Primary Submission Category: Causal Inference Education
From Identification to Implementation: Practical Strategies for Initiating Field Experiments in Government & Non-Profit Research Partnerships
Authors: Jessie Harney,
Presenting Author: Jessie Harney*
Initiating RCTs with government agencies and non-profit organizations often hinges less on methodological sophistication and more on effective communication and relationship-building. Many potential partners running innovative programs face some combination of limited statistical training, weak data infrastructure, binding resource constraints, and prior negative or extractive experiences with academic research, sometimes shaped by gatekeeping or other forms of marginalization. As a result, fruitful collaborations can be easily stymied. This talk provides practical strategies for developing effective, ethical, collaboratively-designed RCTs with governments and non-profits. Drawing on lessons from (transparently, an early-career applied researcher), core components of initiating RCTs are proposed: accessible communication of research design & methodology; early & sustained incorporation of partner expertise; explicit attention to providing value to the partner; flexibility and creativity in randomization strategies; and acknowledgment of the ways experiments have been used to cause harm. Rather than treating these collaboration strategies as external to methodological work, I argue that they shape prospects and design of experiments themselves. The session discusses short-term strategies (e.g., communication tips, proposed researcher training, & engaging data-savvy boundary-spanners) and proposed long-term solutions to reducing structural barriers to rigorous, ethical RCTs.