Designing and Running Randomized Evaluations
Learn practical skills for running randomized evaluations to measure the impact of social programs.
Designing and Running Randomized Evaluations
Learn practical skills for running randomized evaluations to measure the impact of social programs.
A randomized evaluation, also known as a randomized controlled trial (RCT), is an impact evaluation method that uses random assignment to obtain a rigorous and unbiased estimate of the impact of a program or policy.
What you'll learn
The course will investigate the following topics:
- Randomized evaluation design
- Sampling, randomization, and sample size
- Measurement
- Data collection and management
- Questionnaire design
- Research integrity, transparency, and reproducibility
Access the full syllabus here.
Prerequisites
Although not required, familiarity with basic statistical concepts is recommended.
Course Readiness Check:
Our course readiness checks help you determine if you should review key concepts before starting the course.
Please use this link to access the course readiness check and answer key.
Meet your instructors
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Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago -
Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics in the Department of Economics
Rachel Glennerster
Rachel Glennerster
Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago
Rachel Glennerster is an associate professor of economics in the Division of Social Science at the University of Chicago. She is also an affiliated professor and former Executive Director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). She uses randomized trials to study democracy and accountability, health, education, microfinance, and women’s empowerment mainly in West Africa and South Asia. She has also written on strategies to stimulate innovation, promoting more equitable access to vaccines, and the response to Ebola and COVID-19 pandemics.
To learn more, please click here.
Esther Duflo
Esther Duflo
Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics in the Department of Economics
Esther Duflo is the winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. She is also the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics in the Department of Economics at MIT. She was educated at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, in Paris, and at MIT. She has received numerous honors and prizes including a John Bates Clark Medal for the best American economist under 40 in 2010, a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship in 2009. She was recognized as one of the best eight young economists by The Economist magazine, one of the 100 most influential thinkers by Foreign Policy since the list exists, and one of the “Forty under 40” most influential business leaders under forty by Fortune magazine in 2010.
To learn more, please click here.