GV319      Half Unit
Experimental Politics

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

Requisites

Additional requisites:

Familiarity with basic research design and statistics as covered by at least one foundational Statistics course, such as ST102, ST107, ST108, GY140.

This course will introduce students to the design, conduct and analysis of randomized field experiments (RCTs) in politics to evaluate theories, programmes and policies. The course will cover the science and methods of experimentation (weeks 1-3), debate the practicalities of collaborating with political actors such as parties, NGOs and governments, as well as the ethics of field experimentation (week 5). The second part of the course examines the findings of experimental research in five distinct political domains (weeks 7-11). Topics include:

1. Voter mobilisation
2. Social networks
3. Political persuasion
4. Social contact and prejudice reduction
5. Gender and politics

15 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

Problem sets

Students will be expected to solve 1 formative problem set, in WT.

Required textbook:

Gerber, Alan and Donald P. Green. 2012. Field Experiments: Design, Analysis, and Interpretation, New York: W.W. Norton, 2012.

Suggested texts:

Gerber, Alan S., and Donald P. Green. 2017. "Field experiments on voter mobilization: An overview of a burgeoning literature." In Handbook of Economic Field Experiments, Vol. 1, pp. 395-438.

John, Peter. 2017. Field Experiments in Political Science and Public Policy: Practical Lessons in Design and Delivery, London: Routledge.

Karlan, Dean and Jacob Appel. Failing in the Field, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016.

Journal articles and other reading list texts, as assigned.

Students will have free choice on their experimental research design topic, so they should expect to find and read additional books and articles on the topic in consultation with the instructor and the library.

Exam (50%), duration: 120 Minutes in the Spring exam period

Research design (50%, 3000 words) in Spring Term Week 1

The assessment for this module consists of one exam (50%) and one research design essay (50%). In the experimental research design essay (3,000 words) you are asked to write an experimental design outlining how you would address a causal research question of your choice in Political Science using a randomized field experiment. The research design should include a short literature review, hypotheses, research design, and pre-analysis plan. There is also a practice problem set, for which cohort feedback is provided. The formative problem set will ensure that students have the skills necessary to propose a credible experimental design. One-on-one meetings after Reading Week will provide a checkpoint to obtain early feedback.