经济学家进行的随机对照试验(RCT)是否存在伦理性问题?从日本的RCT型网络调查得到的证据

作者 横尾英史(研究助理)
发表日期/编号 2019年1月 19-J-004
研究课题 日本循证政策的推进
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概要

This study examines public perception of ethicality of randomized field experiments of individuals living in Japan. Two online surveys are implemented targeting approximately, 2,000 respondents each. In the first survey, respondents are asked if they feel there are ethical issues with six past experiments conducted by economists. Among the six experiments, an experiment on the impact of preschools is considered as not unethical by the majority of the respondents. Conversely, a study on using the lottery to promote charitable giving is considered unethical by the majority. To further investigate the drivers behind the respondents stances on the ethics of the experiments, a second survey is conducted focusing on the above two experiments. Respondents are shown different, randomly assigned explanations of the experiment. To test whether the randomized control trial design itself is a cause of the respondents' stance, a study using a before-after comparison is also shown. The result shows that the difference in the experimental design alone does not affect the ethical issues for the study promoting charitable giving. Changing the topic of the study from charitable giving to the other pro-social behavior decreases the responses of "Unethical." Mitigating ethical issues in the experiments is required for evidence-based policymaking in Japan.