IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/evarev/v19y1995i5p547-556.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Minimum Detectable Effects

Author

Listed:
  • Howard S. Bloom

    (New York University)

Abstract

This article describes a simple way to assess the statistical power of experimental designs. The approach presented is based on the concept of a minimum detectable effect, which, intuitively, is the smallest true impact that an experiment has a good chance of detecting. The article illustrates how to compute minimum detectable effects and how to apply this concept to the assessment of alternative experimental designs. Applications to impact estimators for both continuous and binary outcome measures are considered

Suggested Citation

  • Howard S. Bloom, 1995. "Minimum Detectable Effects," Evaluation Review, , vol. 19(5), pages 547-556, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:evarev:v:19:y:1995:i:5:p:547-556
    DOI: 10.1177/0193841X9501900504
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0193841X9501900504
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0193841X9501900504?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Woodbury, Stephen A & Spiegelman, Robert G, 1987. "Bonuses to Workers and Employers to Reduce Unemployment: Randomized Trials in Illinois," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(4), pages 513-530, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sarah Baird & Aislinn Bohren & Berk Ozler & Craig McIntosh, 2014. "Designing Experiments to Measure Spillover Effects," Working Papers 2014-11, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy.
    2. Eric W. Djimeu & Deo-Gracias Houndolo, 2016. "Power calculation for causal inference in social science: sample size and minimum detectable effect determination," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(4), pages 508-527, October.
    3. Blackman, Allen & Goff, Leonard & Rivera Planter, Marisol, 2018. "Does eco-certification stem tropical deforestation? Forest Stewardship Council certification in Mexico," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 306-333.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Brown, Alessio J.G. & Merkl, Christian & Snower, Dennis J., 2011. "Comparing the effectiveness of employment subsidies," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 168-179, April.
    2. Phillips, David C., 2014. "Getting to work: Experimental evidence on job search and transportation costs," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 72-82.
    3. Paul L. Burgess & Stuart A. Low, 1998. "How do Unemployment Insurance and Recall Expectations Affect on-the-job Search among Workers Who Receive Advance Notice of Layoff?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 51(2), pages 241-252, January.
    4. Eric Rasmusen, 1995. "Observed Choice, Estimation, and Optimism About Policy Changes," Econometrics 9506004, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 16 Jun 1995.
    5. Bruno Crépon & Gerard J. van den Berg, 2016. "Active Labor Market Policies," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 8(1), pages 521-546, October.
    6. Barnow, Burt S. & Greenberg, David, 2013. "Replication issues in social experiments: lessons from US labor market programs," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 46(3), pages 239-252.
    7. Thomas Mayer, 2012. "Ziliak and McCloskey's Criticisms of Significance Tests: An Assessment," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 9(3), pages 256-297, September.
    8. Vikström, Johan & Ridder, Geert & Weidner, Martin, 2018. "Bounds on treatment effects on transitions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 205(2), pages 448-469.
    9. Jonathan Gruber, 1994. "The Consumption Smoothing Benefits of Unemployment Insurance," NBER Working Papers 4750, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Karen E. Needels & Walter Nicholson, 1999. "An Analysis of Unemployment Insurance Durations Since the 1990-1992 Recession," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 555a1aa8ba144125ae9c715fe, Mathematica Policy Research.
    11. Pantuosco, Lou & Parker, Darrell, 1998. "Sources of Prevailing Differences in Unemployment Rates For Selected Regional Pairs," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 28(2), pages 35-46, Fall.
    12. Marike Knoef & Jan C. van Ours & Jan C. van Ours, 2014. "How to Stimulate Single Mothers on Welfare to Find a Job; Evidence from a Natural Experiment," CESifo Working Paper Series 4804, CESifo.
    13. M. Daniele Paserman, 2008. "Job Search and Hyperbolic Discounting: Structural Estimation and Policy Evaluation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(531), pages 1418-1452, August.
    14. Brian Bell & Richard Blundell & John Reenen, 1999. "Getting the Unemployed Back to Work: The Role of Targeted Wage Subsidies," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 6(3), pages 339-360, August.
    15. Chatri, Abdellatif & Hadef, Khadija & Samoudi, Naima, 2021. "Micro-econometric evaluation of subsidized employment in morocco: the case of the "Idmaj" program," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 55, pages 1-17.
    16. repec:iab:iabjlr:v:55:i::p:art.17 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. repec:mpr:mprres:6038 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Parsons, Donald O., 1996. "Imperfect 'tagging' in social insurance programs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1-2), pages 183-207, October.
    19. Bijwaard, G.E., 2002. "Instrumental variable estimation for duration data," Econometric Institute Research Papers EI 2002-39, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus School of Economics (ESE), Econometric Institute.
    20. Kevin Hoover & Mark Siegler, 2008. "Sound and fury: McCloskey and significance testing in economics," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(1), pages 1-37.
    21. Gerfin, Michael & Lechner, Michael & Steiger, Heidi, 2005. "Does subsidised temporary employment get the unemployed back to work? Aneconometric analysis of two different schemes," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(6), pages 807-835, December.
    22. Bijwaard, G.E., 2007. "Instrumental variable estimation of treatment effects for duration outcomes," Econometric Institute Research Papers EI 2007-20, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus School of Economics (ESE), Econometric Institute.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:evarev:v:19:y:1995:i:5:p:547-556. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.