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Optimality of Matched-Pair Designs in Randomized Controlled Trials

Yuehao Bai

arXiv 15 Jun 2022 · Econometrics · publishedAmerican Economic Review (2022) · 48 citations (OpenAlex)

arXiv:2206.07845 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

In randomized controlled trials (RCTs), treatment is often assigned by stratified randomization. I show that among all stratified randomization schemes which treat all units with probability one half, a certain matched-pair design achieves the maximum statistical precision for estimating the average treatment effect (ATE). In an important special case, the optimal design pairs units according to the baseline outcome. In a simulation study based on datasets from 10 RCTs, this design lowers the standard error for the estimator of the ATE by 10% on average, and by up to 34%, relative to the original designs.

Citation extraction

54
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128
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54
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Most heavily cited references

The works this paper leans on most, across its whole bibliography — not restricted to papers in our corpus. Ranked by composite intensity, which combines how often a work is mentioned, how many sections mention it, and how much of that falls in the main text rather than the appendix.

ReferenceIntensityMentionsSectionsMain text
1de Chaisemartin, C. and J. Ramirez-Cuellar (2021) At What Level Should One Cluster Standard Errors in Paired and Small-Strata Experiments?0.92843100%
2Imbens, G. W. and D. B. Rubin (2015) Causal Inference in Statistics, Social, and Biomedical Sciences0.9098475%
3Bai, Y., J. P. Romano, and A. M. Shaikh (2021, February) (2021) Inference in Experiments with Matched Pairs* self0.87415767%
4Bugni, F. A., I. A. Canay, and A. M. Shaikh (2018, October) (2018) Inference Under Covariate-Adaptive Randomization0.7547443%
5Abel, M., R. Burger, E. Carranza, and P. Piraino (2019, April) (2019) Bridging the Intention-Behavior Gap? The Effect of Plan-Making Prompts on Job Search and Employment0.7374275%
6Barrera-Osorio, F., L. L. Linden, and J. E. Saavedra (2019, July) (2019) Medium- and Long-Term Educational Consequences of Alternative Conditional Cash Transfer Designs: Experimental Evidence from Colo…0.7374275%
7Lee, J. N., J. Morduch, S. Ravindran, A. Shonchoy, and H. Zaman (202… (2021) Poverty and Migration in the Digital Age: Experimental Evidence on Mobile Banking in Bangladesh0.7374275%
8Athey, S. and G. W. Imbens (2017) The Econometrics of Randomized Experiments0.72713538%
9Tabord-Meehan, M (2020) Stratification Trees for Adaptive Randomization in Randomized Controlled Trials0.6445240%
10Angrist, J. and V. Lavy (2009, September) (2009) The Effects of High Stakes High School Achievement Awards: Evidence from a Randomized Trial0.64422100%

Showing the top 10 of 54 scored citations.

Cited by, within the corpus

arXiv econ.EM papers that cite this one, ranked by how heavily they lean on it.

Citing paperIntensityMentionsSections
1Optimal Stratification of Survey Experiments1.000134
2Leveraging LLMs to Improve Experimental Design: A Generative Stratification Approach1.000104
3Inference for Two-stage Experiments under Covariate-Adaptive Randomization0.969115
4Finely Stratified Rerandomization Designs0.92843
5Stratification Trees for Adaptive Randomization in Randomized Controlled Trials0.87462
6On the Efficiency of Highly Stratified Experiments0.84333
7Inference for Matched Tuples and Fully Blocked Factorial Designs0.79464
8Inference in Cluster Randomized Trials with Matched Pairs0.73733
9At What Level Should One Cluster Standard Errors in Paired and Small-Strata Experiments?0.69351
10Efficient Semiparametric Estimation of Average Treatment Effects Under Covariate Adaptive Randomization0.64422