· A mini-symposium on power in experiments at the journal Fiscal Studies is now out – “The first paper, by David McKenzie, discusses how to improve power at each stage of an RCT – design, implementation and analysis. While increasing sample size is the default option, McKenzie offers guidance on many other options available to researchers and why they work. The second paper, by Brendon McConnell and Marcos Vera-Hernández, dives into detailed aspects of implementing sample size calculations for different randomisation designs, and offers the formulae, tools and computer code necessary to implement them in practice. The final paper, by Brandon Hauser and Mauricio Olivares, studies hypothesis testing in randomised experiments, and its consequences for sample size calculations. The paper shows how small deviations from the most standard assumptions invalidate standard randomisation-based inference, and provides useful results and guidance for how to adapt power analysis to ensure that calculations remain valid.”
· In VoxDev, Bau et al look at the role of dowry in explaining migration patterns in India, with the research paper forthcoming in the QJE. They argue that dowry payments get retained by the groom’s parents, and serve as compensation for the loss of co-resident support that these parents would have if their sons migrate – so that dowry payments facilitate migration. They also show that when India improved it’s highway system, migration increased more in areas with stronger dowry practices. I would have thought that part of this was directly overcoming the liquidity constraints that make it hard to finance migration- but didn’t see this discussed.
· What makes for good descriptive analysis? Daniel de Kadt and Anna Grzymala-Busse argue that good descriptive work should be clearly linked to theory, well contextualized so that it is clear what it covers, and complete in that it is as comprehensive in terms of measurement and specification as possible. They note that it is not enough to just describe “what is the world like?”, but that it needs to be apparent why we want to describe the phenomena, and what theory this helps inform or challenge. Here is an old post I did of examples of types of descriptive papers in development economics.
· The Chamberlain seminar recently had a panel with the editors of all five top 5 journals on the topic of publishing econometrics papers in general interest journals. They noted that historically only Econometrica and ReStud tended to publish econometrics papers, but the AER, JPE and QJE have now increased their interest in publishing econometrics too. One of the topics discussed was what makes an econometrics paper “general interest” - answers included papers that would change current empirical practice, or provide an important foundation for future thinking. They stressed the importance of an introduction that a non-econometrician can read and understand why the work matters, and of not trying to overclaim that the paper contributes to too many different literatures- but rather focusing on 2-3 key points of contribution – good advice for non-econometrics papers too. Larry Katz noted the rise of applied papers with a serious econometrics contribution – guessing that about one-quarter of applied papers make a serious methodological advance that has the paper influencing future work through its method as well as its findings. Another point noted is that papers can get dinged for having toy applications – better to show the paper identifies an issue with something widely done, or that it changes how one would approach a real application.
· Kevin Bryan has a nice explainer of the work behind the Nobel prize in economics this year to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt for work on innovation.
· John Kane’s guide to making nice dot charts in Stata.
· Alison Beard interviews Esther Duflo in the Harvard Business Review.
· Funding call: IPA’s Peace and Recovery Initiative (PRI) has their tenth Call for Proposals for work on reducing violence and fragility, promoting peace, and preventing, managing, and recovering from crises. They welcome proposals for full impact evaluations, pilot studies, exploratory work, infrastructure and public goods creation, and evidence use & policy outreach support across several broad areas. Mandatory expressions of interest due November 14.
· Conference call for papers: the University of Wisconsin-Madison will host the 23rd Midwest International Economic Development Conference (MWIEDC) this spring. The conference will be held April 24-25, 2026, with submissions due January 8.
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