A few weeks ago, Martin Ravallion wrote a great blog on “shoe-string” evaluations, in which he suggested that there are ways of bypassing two of the most costly items in rigorous Impact Evaluations: contemporaneous credible baseline data; and second, “objectively assessed outcome indicators”, which are based on surveys. Ravallion then proposed a “shoestring” solution that … [Read more...] about Randomized Control Trials on a Budget
Randomized Control Trials
Randomized Control Trials vs. Structural models: sometimes a question of life or death (and millions of dollars….)
I ran into this Wired article that tells the interesting story of the Pfizer failure in launching torcetrapib, a potentially revolutionary compound for cardiovascular treatment. Although the conclusion is too skeptical and the article gets a little bit lost on the “correlation vs. causation” argument, I believe it’s a good example of what can happen when people become … [Read more...] about Randomized Control Trials vs. Structural models: sometimes a question of life or death (and millions of dollars….)