ABSTRACT
Field experiments have come back into fashion in political science, as well as in other disciplines, such as economics, social policy, and development, with social scientists using randomized controlled trials very much more than they did previously. Policy-makers have also increasingly used randomization to get better traction on the evaluation of policies, designing trials of tax reminders, welfare policies, and international aid programs to name just a few of the interventions tested in this way. Social scientists and evaluators have rediscovered how to design and analyze field experiments, but they have paid much less attention to the challenges of organizing and managing them, and in understanding the overall context of the research process. Field experiments pose unique challenges and opportunities for the researcher and evaluator, who want to know how to do them efficiently and get the most from them. These challenges often come from the constraints of working in the real world, the field element of experiments, which makes the research experience challenging and at times hard to predict. This book is aimed to help researchers and evaluators plan and manage their field experiments in the light of the practical constraints and contingencies that emerge. It is also intended to open up discussion about the context and backdrop to field experiments so that these practical aspects of field experiments are better understood and also written up in more detail in published studies. This chapter starts off defining the key terms, explaining what an
experiment is. It sets out why a randomized experiment is a preferred method for social scientists and policy-makers. It then goes on to explain why the practical side to a field experiment is so important. There is an example to show how an experiment operates in the field. The rest of the chapter sets out the main argument and plan of the book.
