Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/149761 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
cemmap working paper No. CWP15/16
Publisher: 
Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice (cemmap), London
Abstract: 
In a randomized control trial, the precision of an average treatment effect estimator can be improved either by collecting data on additional individuals, or by collecting additional covariates that predict the outcome variable. We propose the use of pre-experimental data such as a census, or a household survey, to inform the choice of both the sample size and the covariates to be collected. Our procedure seeks to minimize the resulting average treatment effect estimator's mean squared error, subject to the researcher's budget constraint. We rely on an orthogonal greedy algorithm that is conceptually simple, easy to implement (even when the number of potential covariates is very large), and does not require any tuning parameters. In two empirical applications, we show that our procedure can lead to substantial gains of up to 58%, measured either in terms of reductions in data collection costs or in terms of improvements in the precision of the treatment effect estimator.
Subjects: 
randomized control trials
big data
data collection
optimal survey design
orthogonal greedy algorithm
survey costs
JEL: 
C55
C81
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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