discussion paper
The logic of adaptive sequential experimentation in policy design
ifpri discussion paper | 2013 | Pages: 28
Open Access
Citation
Xing, Haipeng and Zhang, Xiaobo. 2013. The logic of adaptive sequential experimentation in policy design. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1273 Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) http://ebrary.ifpri.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15738coll2/id/127745
In this paper, we argue that economists can learn a great deal from the design principles implemented in medical research. We develop a theoretical model to show the logic of adaptive sequential experiment design in the presence of uncertainty over negative effects and discuss
how to choose samples in a population to minimize the experiment cost. We also point out the applications of our proposed framework in the economic domain, such as economic reforms and new product design.