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Many research and policy questions surrounding migration are causal questions. We want to know what causes people to migrate, and what the consequences of migration are for the migrants, their families, and their communities. However, answering these questions requires dealing with the self-selection inherent in migration choices. Field and natural experiments offer methodological approaches that enable answering these causal questions. We discuss the key conceptual and logistical issues that face applied researchers when applying these methods to the study of migration, as well as providing guidance for practitioners and policymakers in assessing the credibility of causal claims. For randomized experiments, this includes providing a framework for thinking through what can be randomized; discussing key measurement and design issues that arise from issues such as migration being a rare event, and in measuring welfare changes when people change locations; as well as discussing ethical issues that can arise. We then outline what makes for a good natural experiment in the context of migration and discuss the implications of recent econometric work for the use of difference-in-differences, instrumental variables (and especially shift-share instruments), and regression discontinuity methods in migration research. A key lesson from this recent work is that it is not meaningful to talk about “the†impact of migration, but rather impacts are likely to be heterogeneous, affecting both the validity and interpretation of causal estimates.

Emigration and immigration --- Field experiments. --- Research.

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Although the concept of randomized assignment to control for extraneous factors reaches back hundreds of years, the first empirical use appears to have been in an 1835 trial of homeopathic medicine. Throughout the 19th century, there was primarily a growing awareness of the need for careful comparison groups, albeit often without the realization that randomization could be a particularly clean method to achieve that goal. In the second and more crucial phase of this history, four separate but related disciplines introduced randomized control trials within a few years of one another in the 1920s: agricultural science, clinical medicine, educational psychology, and social policy (specifically political science). Randomized control trials brought more rigor to fields that were in the process of expanding their purviews and focusing more on causal relationships. In the third phase, the 1950s through the 1970s saw a surge of interest in more applied randomized experiments in economics and elsewhere, in the lab and especially in the field.

Field Experiment --- Lab Experiment --- Randomization --- RCT --- Selection Bias

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This paper uses a randomized controlled trial to study the effects of access to agent banking. Individuals were encouraged to open an account and transact at a banking agent or a branch of a financial institution. Compared with individuals who were sent to the branch, individuals sent to an agent increased the number of transactions and incurred lower transaction costs with the agent. These transactions are, however, only half as large as those made at the branch because branch tellers are less likely to share information about clients with others. Banking with agents thus entails a trade-off between lower transaction costs and lack of privacy.

E-Finance and E-Security --- Field Experiment --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Transaction Costs

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Finance, Personal. --- Journalists --- Porter, Sylvia Field, --- Finance, Personal --- Financial management, Personal --- Financial planning, Personal --- Personal finance --- Personal financial management --- Personal financial planning --- Planning --- Porter, S. F., --- Feldman, Sylvia Field, --- Finance --- Financial literacy --- Porter, Sylvia, --- E-books

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From baseball Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett's untimely death, to pickup soccer games among misfit high-schoolers, to the most obscure nicknames and unusual mascots in college sports, this book collects memorable commentaries from Littlefield's popular NPR sports talk show, as well as many essays.

Sports. --- Field sports --- Pastimes --- Recreations --- Recreation --- Athletics --- Games --- Outdoor life --- Physical education and training --- Sports --- E-books