Failing in the Field: What We Can Learn When Field Research Goes Wrong

by Dean Karlan, Jacob Appel

A revealing look at the common causes of failures in randomized control experiments during field reseach--and how to avoid themAll across the social sciences, from development economics to political science departments, researchers are going into the field to collect data and learn about the world. While much has been gained from the successes of randomized controlled trials, stories of failed projects often do not get told. In Failing in the Field , Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel delve into the common causes of failure in field research, so that researchers might avoid similar pitfalls in future work.Drawing on the experiences of top social scientists working in developing countries, this book delves into failed projects and helps guide practitioners as they embark on their research. From experimental design and implementation to analysis and partnership agreements, Karlan and Appel show that there are important lessons to be learned from failures at every stage. They describe five common categories of failures, review six case studies in detail, and conclude with some reflections on best (and worst) practices for designing and running field projects, with an emphasis on randomized controlled trials. There is much to be gained from investigating what has previously not worked, from misunderstandings by staff to errors in data collection.Cracking open the taboo subject of the stumbles that can take place in the implementation of research studies, Failing in the Field is a valuable "how-not-to" handbook for conducting fieldwork and running randomized controlled trials in development settings.

Genres: Nonfiction, Economics

176 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 26, 2016

About the author

Dean Karlan is a professor of economics at Yale University. He is also president of Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) and a research fellow of the M.I.T. Jameel Poverty Action Lab. He founded and is president of stickK.com. His research has been funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation, Alfred B. Sloan Foundation, Google.org, National Science Foundation, World Bank, and Interamerican Development Bank, among others. In 2007, Karlan received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut. "

Reviews

[Anna]

Read this for "professional development" so I do not fail in the field.

[Gaia Gaudenzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very useful panoramic of the challenges a novice would face in the field.

[Ardyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're already doing field work, you probably won't get much out of this book. A lot of it is common sense, and many of the case studies and examples are stories you will probably have read some version of in other material in this space. If you don't work in this field, you might gain more insight into the challenges of doing field work in development. But don't expect anything life changing.

[Rania Nasir · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is an important step to take for researchers to acknowledge their failures especially considering that current incentive structures encourage people to hide failure or force them to salvage some interesting conclusion from it.

I'm glad the book exists but am not thrilled that I read it. It's a good book for people who haven't been to the field yet. It's not that great for anyone who has.

[Jadrian Wooten · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some interesting stories about how field studies go wrong, but the idea that this would be used for a budding researcher is a bit of a stretch.

[Theres · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pleasant read but didn't have any "aha" moments, and it's not very long.