Experimental Methods in Survey Research in Demography

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been profitably used to identify causal effects in population research. However, the design and implementation of social experiments is not straightforward and it is not clear that it is either feasible or desirable to attempt to answer some questions in population using only the so-called 'gold standard' double-blind RCT. It seems likely that the integration of the creative use of theory with the advantages of both RCTs and nonexperimental study designs has the greatest hope of advancing scientific knowledge about population behaviors and processes.

Duke Scholars

Author Duncan Thomas Economics