The politics of experimentation: Political competition and randomized controlled trials

This paper provides an analysis of how political factors affect the incidence of the evaluation of public policies, with a focus on Randomized Control Trial (RCT) experiments in international development. We argue that political environments where incumbents face greater electoral competition and smaller ruling margins are more likely to host RCT experiments. Using various data sources for the incidence of RCTs both at the cross-country level and at the sub-national level in India, we find that RCTs are more likely to occur in politically competitive jurisdictions. We employ fixed effects regressions using various estimators and an instrumental variable strategy that exploits an electoral reform in India which limited the entry of independent candidates and exogenously affected the degree of electoral competition in state-level politics. The effect seems concentrated on RCTs that have the government as a partner, suggesting that political competition has an important demand-side effect on the incidence of RCTs.     

Optimising a Probabilistic Model of the Development of Play in Soccer

We present a probabilistic model based on the one developed by Hernández Mendo and Anguera (Revista de Psicologíca Social, 16(1), 71–93, 2001). Here we have tried to break down the interaction contexts that the opposing teams are able to generate and transform during the game. We are aware that a given player or team does not produce consistent behaviour in similar situations. However, a degree of uncertainty is assumed to exist regarding whether the results obtained are a specific function of the analysis used. In order to carry out this research a category system which optimized that used in the previous model was developed. This system should enable the interaction between teams to be observed within the actual play of a soccer game. A lag sequential analysis was performed on the basis of a coding of the behavioural flow. After describing the behavioural patterns obtained a probabilistic model of the development of play in soccer is proposed.     

Research laboratory architecture and the structuring of communications

This paper brings together results of a number of studies of communication in R & D organizations. These studies show very clearly the way in which communication is influenced by the physical, architectural arrangement of the laboratory. Communication between individuals is very sensitive to both the horizontal and vertical distances separating them. The point at which it becomes desirable to add floors to a building was derived as a function of required floor area. Finally, a partially successful experiment is reported in which an attempt was made to improve communication in an organization through architectural change. The results presented here should form the basis for further experimentation in this same manner. The possibilities are almost limitless. It only remains for some good imagination to be applied to the problem.     

Explicit representation of the two-dimensional section of a production possibility set

Technical and scale efficiencies of Data Envelope Analysis are associated with a two dimensionalsection (a convex set) representing the amounts by which the input and output vectors of a reference decision making unit, may be scaled and still lie in the production possibility set. We describe a simple algorithm, closely resembling the simplex algorithm of linear programming, to traverse the boundary of this set. Given the output of our algorithm, the scalar efficiency measures and return-to-scale characterization are trivially determined. Moreover, the set may be graphically displayed for any problem in any number of dimensions with only a minimum of additional computing effort.     

The savings potential of 24-hour coverage

In summary, there are costs to maintaining separate systems to cover both work- and non-work-related injuries and illnesses; there are also significant costs associated with achieving coordination--if not integration--of the two plans. Overall, the financial data do not indicate that the overlap between workers' compensation and health benefits is of such magnitude as to justify integration regardless of cost; however, the data do suggest that judicious exploitation of opportunities to coordinate the two programs, especially in regard to managing health care providers, may generate significant savings.