Assessing methods for generalizing experimental impact estimates to target populations.

ABSTRACT: Randomized experiments are considered the gold standard for causal inference, as they can provide unbiased estimates of treatment effects for the experimental participants. However, researchers and policymakers are often interested in using a specific experiment to inform decisions about other target populations. In education research, increasing attention is being paid to the potential lack of generalizability of randomized experiments, as the experimental participants may be unrepresentative of the target population of interest. This paper examines whether generalization may be assisted by statistical methods that adjust for observed differences between the experimental participants and members of a target population. The methods examined include approaches that reweight the experimental

SUBMITTER: Kern HL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5030077 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature