In this chapter, we discuss the “lab-in-the-field” methodology, which combines elements of both lab and field experiments in using standardized, validated paradigms from the lab in targeting relevant populations in naturalistic settings. We begin by examining how the methodology has been...

Randomized field experiments designed to better understand the production of human capital have increased exponentially over the past several decades. This chapter summarizes what we have learned about various partial derivatives of the human capital production function, what important partial...

Building on theoretical and empirical literatures showing that choices not only reflect but also create preferences, we develop a two-stage incentivized intervention to promote pro-sociality. In the first stage, participants are incentivized to complete a compound task consisting of a targeted...

The literature on pro-social behavior shows that older children are more generous than younger children; however, the level of individual generosity is heterogeneous even between children of the same age. This paper investigates whether a child’s popularity affects a child’s generosity. Our...

We document the effectiveness of robo calls for increasing voter participation despite most published research finding little or no effect of automated calls. We establish this finding in a large field experiment in a targeted, partisan get-out-the-vote campaign. Our experimental design includes...

In this chapter, we argue that good experimental design and analysis accounts for the notion of construal, a person's subjective interpretation of a stimulus, a situation, or an experimental intervention. Researchers have long been aware of motivations, such as self-presentation, profit seeking,...

Between 1970 and the early 2000s, there was a revolution in support for the use of field experiments to evaluate social programs. Focusing on the welfare reform studies that helped to speed that transformation in the United States, this chapter describes the major challenges to implementing...

A number of critical innovations spurred the rapid expansion in the use of field experiments by academics. Some of these were econometric but many were intensely practical. Researchers learned how to work with a wide range of implementing organizations from small, local nongovernmental...

The study of education in developing countries has been transformed by the rapid increase in the feasibility and prevalence of field experiments over the past 15 years. This paper comprises three main sections. First, it illustrates the very broad range of research questions regarding education...

This essay reviews the ways in which field experiments have been used to study political participation. We begin by charting the intellectual history of field experimentation in political science. We explain why the advent of field experimentation in recent years represents an important advance...