Optimal Design for Two-Level Random Assignment and Regression Discontinuity Studies |
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| Authors: | Christopher H Rhoads Charles Dye |
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| Institution: | University of Connecticut |
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| Abstract: | An important concern when planning research studies is to obtain maximum precision of an estimate of a treatment effect given a budget constraint. When research designs have a multilevel or hierarchical structure changes in sample size at different levels of the design will impact precision differently. Furthermore, there will typically be differential costs of enrolling additional units at different levels of the hierarchy. The optimal design problem in multilevel research studies involves determining the optimal sample size at each level of the design given specified design parameters and a specified marginal cost of recruitment at each level. The current work extends existing results by considering optimal design for (a) unbalanced random assignment designs and (b) regression discontinuity designs. |
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| Keywords: | research design efficacy studies multi-level studies regression discontinuity optimal design |
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