Regression discontinuity designs: a hands-on guide for practice

• Vicente Valentim ^[1] ; Ana Ruipérez Núñez ^[1] ; Ana Ruipérez Núñez ^[1]
  1. [1] European University Institute

     European University Institute

     Firenze, Italia

     
• Localización: Rivista italiana di scienza politica, ISSN 0048-8402, ISSN-e 2057-4908, Vol. 51, Nº. 2, 2021 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Capturing Causation: Issues of Research Design in Political Science), págs. 250-268
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.1017/ipo.2021.27
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Regression discontinuity (RD) designs have become increasingly popular in political science, due to their ability to showcase causal effects under weak assumptions. This paper provides an intuition-based guide for the use of the RD in applied research. After an intuitive explanation of how the method works, we provide a checklist that can help researchers understand the main robustness checks they should run, and a quick introduction to software implementing the design. We also provide a list of classic designs and examples of their application in political science. We hope this article can constitute a stepping stone from which researchers interested in RD can jump to more advanced literature; and which makes researchers not interested in implementing RDs better consumers of research employing this design.