Small Study Regression Discontinuity Designs: Density Inclusive Study Size Metric and Performance

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Swartzentruber, Daryl, Kaizar, Eloise
Format: Preprint
Published: 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866914877958782976
author Swartzentruber, Daryl
Kaizar, Eloise
author_facet Swartzentruber, Daryl
Kaizar, Eloise
contents Regression discontinuity (RD) designs are popular quasi-experimental studies in which treatment assignment depends on whether the value of a running variable exceeds a cutoff. RD designs are increasingly popular in educational applications due to the prevalence of cutoff-based interventions. In such applications sample sizes can be relatively small or there may be sparsity around the cutoff. We propose a metric, density inclusive study size (DISS), that characterizes the size of an RD study better than overall sample size by incorporating the density of the running variable. We show the usefulness of this metric in a Monte Carlo simulation study that compares the operating characteristics of popular nonparametric RD estimation methods in small studies. We also apply the DISS metric and RD estimation methods to school accountability data from the state of Indiana.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2209_01396
institution arXiv
publishDate 2022
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Small Study Regression Discontinuity Designs: Density Inclusive Study Size Metric and Performance
Swartzentruber, Daryl
Kaizar, Eloise
Methodology
Regression discontinuity (RD) designs are popular quasi-experimental studies in which treatment assignment depends on whether the value of a running variable exceeds a cutoff. RD designs are increasingly popular in educational applications due to the prevalence of cutoff-based interventions. In such applications sample sizes can be relatively small or there may be sparsity around the cutoff. We propose a metric, density inclusive study size (DISS), that characterizes the size of an RD study better than overall sample size by incorporating the density of the running variable. We show the usefulness of this metric in a Monte Carlo simulation study that compares the operating characteristics of popular nonparametric RD estimation methods in small studies. We also apply the DISS metric and RD estimation methods to school accountability data from the state of Indiana.
title Small Study Regression Discontinuity Designs: Density Inclusive Study Size Metric and Performance
topic Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.01396