This page presents information about the course, including a calendar.
What is 14.11?
14.11 is a new class on the topic of field (that is, 'in situ') and laboratory experiments in the social sciences - both what these experiments have taught and can teach us and how to conduct them.
The class has three major components:
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In lecture, we will discuss (and you will read research papers on) 12 major substantive topics addressed by experimental social science, including: race discrimination, gender differences in behavior, persuasion, corruption and voting.
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Each lecture will also cover methodological topics that will aid you in designing, conducting, analyzing and presenting a field or laboratory experiment.
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You, the student, will conduct an original experimental study (i.e. not only library or Google™ research) with human subjects. There will be a number of structured assignments and milestones leading to the planning, execution, write-up and presentation of this research.
Summary of Research Topics
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Racial Discrimination
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Public Health and Persuasion
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Incentives
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Gender Differences in Economic Environments
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Intrinsic Motivation and Fairness
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Educational Quality
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Corruption
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Learning and Social Effects
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Housing Experiments
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Voting Behavior and Political Economy
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Jury/Advocacy
Summary of Methodological Topics
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Causal Inference
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Threats to Validity (Internal Threats)
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Sample Size, Power Calculations
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Human Subjects
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Threats to Validity (External Threats)
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Clustering and Standard Errors
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Randomization as an Instrumental Variable
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Statistical Inference with Multiple Outcomes
Calendar
Course calendar.
| LEC # |
TOPICS |
LECTURERS |
KEY DATES |
| 1 |
Racial Discrimination |
David Autor |
|
| 2 |
Public Health and Persuasion |
Esther Duflo |
|
| 3 |
Incentives, Reciprocity and Cooperation |
David Autor |
Read 5 of 13 assigned example papers and 2 paragraphs on each |
| 4 |
Gender Differences in Economic Environments: Leadership, Competition, Politics |
Esther Duflo |
Memo describing research topic of interest, including brief literature review |
| 5 |
Intrinsic Motivation and Fairness |
David Autor |
Research proposal memo: Question, research design and further literature review as relevant. Complete MIT Human Subjects test
First version of Couhes application due 3 days after Lec #5 |
| 6 |
Improving Educational Quality |
Esther Duflo |
Final version of Couhes application due - This must be submitted to Couhes 2 days after Lec #6 or you will receive no credit for 14.11 (because you cannot perform an experiment). |
| 7 |
Monitoring, Deception and Corruption |
David Autor |
|
| 8 |
Learning and Social Effects |
Esther Duflo |
Final research design due |
| 9 |
Commitment, Self-control and Savings |
Esther Duflo |
|
| 10 |
Housing Experiments and Neighborhood Effects |
David Autor |
Memo summarizing and presenting initial analysis of your experimental results |
| 11 |
Voting |
Esther Duflo |
|
| 12 |
Juries, Advocacy and Bias |
David Autor |
Final project due 2 days after Lec #12 |