(Non)Randomization: A Theory of Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of School Quality

Yusuke Narita ()

No 2056, Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers from Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University

Abstract: In centralized school admissions systems, rationing at oversubscribed schools often uses lotteries in addition to preferences. This partly random assignment is used by empirical researchers to identify the effect of entering a school on outcomes like test scores. This paper formally studies if the two most popular empirical research designs successfully extract a random assignment. For a class of data-generating mechanisms containing those used in practice, I show: One research design extracts a random assignment under a mechanism if and almost only if the mechanism is strategy-proof for schools. In contrast, the other research design does not necessarily extract a random assignment under any mechanism.

Keywords: Matching Market Design; Natural Experiment; Program Evaluation; Random Assignment; Quasi-Experimental Research Design; School Eectiveness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 60 pages
Date: 2016-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-exp and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Working Paper: (Non)Randomization: A Theory of Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of School Quality (2017)
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