Scholars assert that pre-analysis plans (PAPs) generate boring, lab-report style papers and thus hamper publication. We test this claim by comparing the publication rates of experimental NBER working papers with and without PAPs. We find that …
In recent years, the discipline of political science has experienced demands and moves toward greater research transparency. While in quantitative research increased transparency through replication has become a fairly accepted convention, in …
Pre-Analysis Plans (PAPs) for randomized evaluations are becoming increasingly common in Economics, but their definition remains unclear and their practical applications therefore vary widely. Based on our collective experiences as researchers and …
Pre-analysis plans (PAPs) have been championed as a solution to the problem of research credibility, but without any evidence that PAPs actually bolster the credibility of research. We analyze a representative sample of 195 PAPs registered on the …
The purpose of this paper is to help think through the advantages and costs of rigorous pre-specification of statistical analysis plans in economics. A pre-analysis plan pre-specifies in a precise way the analysis to be run before examining the data. …
Pre-analysis plans (PAPs) are a potential remedy to the publication of spurious findings in empirical research, but they have been criticized for their costs and for preventing valid discoveries. In this article, we analyze the costs and benefits of …
We provide a novel articulation of the epistemic peril of p-hacking using three resources from philosophy: predictivism, Bayesian confirmation theory, and model selection theory. We defend a nuanced position on p-hacking: p-hacking is sometimes, but …
We describe what is a pre-analysis plan (PAP) and why you should use one. We emphasize the potential political uses of PAPs and, in particular, how the PAP is in this respect a uniquely powerful tool for increasing the likelihood that evidence …