Objectives
The course covers the design, implementation, and analytic tools necessary for conducting social science experiments. In the first week, the focus will be on laboratory experiments. After an introduction in experimental designs and a review of recent topics in experimental social sciences, the reminder of the first week will be hands-on lab experiments. Participants will learn how to program experiments with z-Tree, work with the subject recruitment software, analyse experimental data and be able to run a lab experiment at the Nuffield Centre for Experimental Social Sciences. In the first half of the second week, the course will cover field and online experiments. Moreover, in two afternoon sessions, participants will have the opportunity to present their own experimental research and receive feedback from an experienced team of instructors. The remainder of the second week will cover topics of causal inference and experimental approaches to data analysis. Upon completion of the course participants should be able to (1) formulate Research questions that can be addressed using experiments, (2) design and carry out experiments, and (3) analyse and interpret results from social sciences experiments.
The course is appropriate for participants from any discipline who expect to include experimental social research as part of their research agenda. It is also appropriate for participants who want to become informed consumers of experimental research scholarship.
Prerequisites
Participants should have a basic background in research design and statistics. For example, with respect to research design, they should understand basic concepts such as exogeneity, control group, and confounding effects. With respect to basic statistics, they should understand the principals of ordinary least squares regression; how to calculate simple measures of association; and have some familiarity with a statistical software package. The hands-on experimental data analysis lab sessions will use R. Participants not familiar with R are strongly advised to attend the Introduction in R, held throughout the first week.
Location and Cost
The Experimental Summer School will be held at the CESS India Lab. CESS has a fully-equipped experimental laboratory which will be an integral part of the Summer School instruction. It is highly recommended that students book their accommodation as early as possible.
Cost
115,000 Rupees.
Schedule
| Week 1 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day | Time | Place | Topic | Instructor | ||||
| Monday | 09:00 – 12:30 | CL | Causal inference and experimental designs I | rd | ||||
| 14:00 – 16:00 | CL | Causal inference and experimental designs II | rd | |||||
| Tuesday | 09:00 – 12:30 | CL | Experimental Design | rd | ||||
| 14:00 – 16:00 | CL | Experimental Design | rd | |||||
| Wednesday | 09:00 – 12:30 | CL | Lab Experiments | jj | ||||
| 14:00 – 16:00 | CL | Programming z-Tree and o-Tree I | jj | |||||
| Thursday | 09:00 – 12:30 | CL | Programming z-Tree and o-Tree II | jj | ||||
| 14:00 – 16:00 | CL | Summarizing data from laboratory experiments | jj | |||||
| Friday | 09:00 – 12:30 | CL | Programming z-Tree and o-Tree III | jj | ||||
| 14:00 – 16:00 | CL | Participants’ presentations I | t.b.a. | |||||
| Week 2 | ||||||||
| Day | Time | Place | Topic | Instructor | ||||
| Monday | 09:00 – 12:30 | CL | Field Experiments | sb | ||||
| 14:00 – 16:00 | CL | Field Experiments | sb | |||||
| Tuesday | 09:00 – 12:30 | CL | Programming online experiments I | rd | ||||
| 14:00 – 16:00 | CL | Programming online experiments II | rd | |||||
| Wednesday | 09:00 – 12:30 | CL | Experimental approaches to data analysis I | lk | ||||
| 14:00 – 16:00 | CL | Analysing experimental data I | lk | |||||
| 17:00 – 18:30 | t.b.a | Guest lecture | lk | |||||
| 18:30 – 19:00 | t.b.a | Pre-dinner drinks & Dinner | ||||||
| Thursday | 09:00 – 12:30 | CL | Experimental approaches to data analysis II | lk | ||||
| 14:00 – 16:00 | CL | Analysing experimental data II | lk | |||||
| Friday | 09:00 – 12:30 | CL | Participants’ presentations II | lk | ||||
| CL: CESS Lab | ||||||||
| rd: Ray Duch; jj: John Jensenius; sb: Sharon Barnhardt; lk: Luke Keele | ||||||||
Instructors
Raymond Duch
Official Fellow of Nuffield College and Director of CESS
Research interests: Comparative political economy, political behaviour, methods
John Jensenius
Researcher and Assistant to the Director of CESS
Research interests: Experimental social science, behavioural economics, public economics, industrial organisation
Sharon Barnhardt
CESS India, Director
Research interests: Urban Development, Rural Health.
Luke Keele
Associate Professor, Georgetown University.
Research interests: Matching methods, instrumental variables, randomization inference, and regression discontinuity designs
For more information click "Further official information" below.
This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:
https://cess-india.nuff.ox.ac.uk/2017-cess-india-experimental-summer-school/#1449849375335-f16698ce-3304