Learning Curve: Progress in the Replication Crisis

Resource type
Journal Article
Authors/contributors
Title
Learning Curve: Progress in the Replication Crisis
Abstract
We present detailed monitoring data across a five-country randomized trial of phone-based targeted tutoring–one of the largest multicountry replication efforts in education to date. We study an approach shown to work in Botswana and replicated in India, Kenya, Nepal, the Philippines, and Uganda. While the existing literature often finds diminishing effects as proof-of-concept studies are replicated and scaled, we find the opposite: implementation fidelity (the degree of targeted educational instruction) improves across replications and over time. This demonstrates that replication is not intractable; rather, equipped with mechanisms to learn from experience, organizational “learning curves” can enable effective replication and scale-up.
Publication
AEA Papers and Proceedings
Volume
113
Pages
482-488
Date
2023-05-01
Journal Abbr
AEA Papers and Proceedings
Language
en
ISSN
2574-0768, 2574-0776
Short Title
Learning Curve
Accessed
09/10/2023, 10:40
Library Catalogue
DOI.org (Crossref)
Citation
Angrist, N., Cullen, C., Ainomugisha, M., Bathena, S. P., Bergman, P., Crossley, C., Letsomo, T., Matsheng, M., Panti, R. M., Sabarwal, S., & Sullivan, T. (2023). Learning Curve: Progress in the Replication Crisis. AEA Papers and Proceedings, 113, 482–488. https://doi.org/10.1257/pandp.20231009