Blog Post

Using Experiments to Inform Policy

In economics and development work, experiments are becoming a widely used and accepted research tool. For such experiments to be a useful policymaking tool, however, it is necessary for both researchers and policymakers to have a clear understanding of how the experimental method works and how the results of experiments can be used to inform policy decisions. Treating the Field as a Lab: A Basic Guide to Conducting Economics Experiments for Policymaking is a new technical guide released by IFPRI that presents the basic principles, strengths, and weaknesses of laboratory-like economic field experiments.

The guide provides 19 basic principles for conducting economic field experiments (specifically, lab-like field experiments) in developing countries. Such experiments can be extremely useful because they involve the participation of real-life agricultural stakeholders, such as farmers and traders, rather than university students or researchers. Lab-like field experiments are typically used for four main purposes:

  1. To test theories;
  2. To measure “unobservable” characteristics, such as subjects' risk aversion or propensity to trust other actors or institutions;
  3. To gain a clearer understanding of experiments' potential heterogeneity, such as changes in the subject population; and
  4. To demonstrate economic concepts in a real world context

The guide gives examples of on-going and completed lab-like field experiments, as well as an overview of the role of game theory in the experimental method and a discussion of the challenges and benefits of using these types of experiments to inform policy. While the guide's scope does not address every aspect of the experimental method, it provides an important road map for the expanded understanding and use of experiments to drive policy decisions.