Designing and Running Randomized Evaluations
offered by MIT University

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Designing and Running Randomized Evaluations
at
MIT University
Overview

Gain a comprehensive overview of Designing and Running Randomized Evaluations

Duration	12 weeks
Mode of learning	Online
Course Level	UG Certificate

Designing and Running Randomized Evaluations
at
MIT University
Highlights

Earn a certificate after completion

Designing and Running Randomized Evaluations
at
MIT University
Course details

What are the course deliverables?

Designing a Randomized Evaluation
Selecting a sample
Measurement of outcomes
Collecting and managing your data
Research Integrity, Transparency, and Reproducibilit

More about this course

This is a CORE course within the MITx MicroMasters program in Data, Economics, and Design of Policy (DEDP), which provides a path toward the Master’s in DEDP at MIT
A randomized evaluation, also known as a field experiment or randomized controlled trial (RCT), is an impact evaluation that uses random assignment to minimize bias, and strengthen our ability to draw causal inferences
This course will provide step-by-step training on how to design and conduct an RCT. You will learn how to build a well-designed, policy relevant study, including why and when to conduct RCTs

Designing and Running Randomized Evaluations
at
MIT University
Curriculum

Week One: Randomized Evaluation Design I

What is evaluation

Why randomize?

How to randomize?

Week Two: Randomized Evaluation Design II

Threats and Analysis

Generalizability

Cost-Effectiveness and Cost-Benefit Analysis

Week Three: Sampling and Sample Size

Sampling and Randomization

Sample Size and Power

Practical Tips: Sampling and Sample Size

Week Four: Measurement I (Intro, Sensitive Topics, Market Activity)

Introduction to Measurement

Measuring Sensitive Questions

Measuring Market Activity

Week Five: Measurement II (Welfare, Health, Networks)

Measuring Welfare and Consumption

Measuring Health Outcomes

Measuring Networks

Week Six: Measurement III (Behavior, Education, Gender and Empowerment)

Measuring Behavior and Preferences

Measuring Learning

Measuring Gender and Empowerment

Week Seven: Data Collection & Management (Questionnaire Design)

Introduction to Data Collection

Questionnaire Design and Piloting

Modes of Data Collection

Mid-Term Exam

Designing and Running Randomized Evaluations
at
MIT University
Faculty details

Rachel Glennerster

Rachel Glennerster is an associate professor of economics in the Division of Social Science at the University of Chicago. She is also an affiliated professor and former Executive Director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). She uses randomized trials to study democracy and accountability, health, education, microfinance, and women’s empowerment mainly in West Africa and South Asia. She has also written on strategies to stimulate innovation, promoting more equitable access to vaccines, and the response to Ebola and COVID-19 pandemics.

Esther Duflo

Economic Sciences. She is also the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics in the Department of Economics at MIT. She was educated at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, in Paris, and at MIT. She has received numerous honors and prizes including a John Bates Clark Medal for the best American economist under 40 in 2010, a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship in 2009. She was recognized as one of the best eight young economists by The Economist magazine, one of the 100 most influential thinkers by Foreign Policy since the list exists, and one of the “Forty under 40” most influential business leaders under forty by Fortune magazine in 2010.