Designing Information Provision Experiments

TLDR

Information provision experiments enable researchers to test economic theories and address policy questions by manipulating the information set given to respondents. The authors review the expanding use of such experiments across macroeconomics, finance, political economy, public economics, labor economics, and health economics, outlining design principles, belief measurement, intervention construction, belief updating, mitigation of confounds, recruitment strategies, and providing guidance on effect sizes and sample size calculations.

Abstract

Information provision experiments allow researchers to test economic theories and answer policy-relevant questions by varying the information set available to respondents. We survey the emerging literature using information provision experiments in economics and discuss applications in macroeconomics, finance, political economy, public economics, labor economics, and health economics. We also discuss design considerations and provide best-practice recommendations on how to (i) measure beliefs; (ii) design the information intervention; (iii) measure belief updating; (iv) deal with potential confounds, such as experimenter demand effects; and (v) recruit respondents using online panels. We finally discuss typical effect sizes and provide sample size recommendations.(JEL C90, D83, D91)