Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35711573›Full record

ArticleJournal of development economics2022

Identifying communication spillovers in lab-in-the-field experiments.

Alexander Coutts

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of development economics, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Alexander CouttsSchulich School of Business, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Use of lab-in-the-field experiments has steadily increased, given benefits of studying relevant populations and their preferences. In the field, researchers must often relinquish the control of a standard laboratory, raising the specter of communication from past to future participants. Little is known about the consequences of such spillovers, and recent literature indicates variation in how authors deal with them. I provide estimates of communication spillovers using existing data from public goods games in Rwanda, leveraging variation in planning the sequence of visiting 147 villages. The resulting order created opportunities for some villages to communicate with past participants. Using ex-post matching of villages with and without these opportunities I find that communication led to substantial increases in cooperation, suggesting that unanticipated spillovers can bias inference. I conclude with advice for creating protocols to deal with communication spillovers.

Indexed as

CommunicationDevelopmentField experimentsLab-in-the-fieldPublic goods gamesRwandaSocial learningSpilloversSUTVA

Identifiers

PMID35711573
PMCPMC9193284

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.