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- [Narrator] On his quest
to master econometrics,
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Grasshopper Kamal has
made great progress
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stretching his capabilities
and outsmarting his foes.
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Alas, today he's despondent.
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For one challenge remains unmet.
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Kamal cannot yet decode
the scriptures of academic research,
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journals like
"The American Economic Review"
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and "Econometrica."
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These seemed to him to be inscribed
in an obscure foreign tongue.
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- [Kamal] Ugh, what the... ?
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- [Narrator] These volumes are
opaque to novice, Kamal,
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but can be deciphered with study.
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Let us learn to read them together.
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Let's dive into the West Point study,
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published in the "Economics
of Education Review."
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This paper reports
on a randomized evaluation
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of student electronics use
in Economics 101 classrooms.
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First, a quick review
of the research design.
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- Okay.
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- [Josh] 'Metrics masters
teaching at West Point,
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the military college that trains
American Army officers
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designed a randomized trial
to answer this question.
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These masters randomly assigned
West Point cadets
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into Economics classes
operating under different rules.
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Unlike most American colleges,
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the West Point default
is no electronics.
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For purposes of this experiment,
some students were left
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in such traditional
technology-free classes,
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no lap tops, no tablets
and no phones!
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[voice echoes]
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This is the control group,
or baseline case.
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Another group was allowed
to use electronics.
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This is the treatment group,
subject to a changed environment.
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The treatment in this case
is the unrestricted use
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of laptops or tablets in class.
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Every causal question
has a clear outcome,
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the variables we hope to influence
defined in advance of the study.
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The outcomes in the West Point
electronics study
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are final exam scores.
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The study seeks to answer
the following question,
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what is the causal effect
of classroom electronics on learning
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as measured by exam scores?
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- Economics journal articles
usually begin with a table
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of descriptive statistics,
giving key facts
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about the study sample.
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- Oh my gosh, I remember this table,
so confusing!
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Columns 1 to 3 report mean,
or average, characteristics.
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These give a sense
of who we're studying.
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Let's start with column 1
which describes covariates
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in a control group.
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Covariates are characteristics
of the control and treatment groups
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measured before
the experiment begins.
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For example, we see the control group
has an average age a bit over 20.
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Many of these covariates
are dummy variables.
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A dummy variable can only have
two values, a zero or a one.
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For example, student gender
is captured by a dummy variable
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that equals one for woman
and zero for man.
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The mean of this variable
is the proportion female.
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We also see that the control group
is 13% Hispanic
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and 19% had prior military service.
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The table notes are key.
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Refer to these
as you scan the table.
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These notes explain what's shown
in each column and panel.
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The notes tell us, for example,
that standard deviations
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are reported in brackets.
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Standard deviations tell us how
spread out the data are.
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For example, a standard deviation
of 0.52 tells us that most
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of the control group's GPAs
fall between 2.35,
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which is 0.52 below
the mean GPA of 2.87,
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and 3.39, which is 0.52 above 2.87.
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A lower standard deviation
would mean the GPAs were
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more tightly clustered
around the mean.
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- [Kamal] Yeah, but they're missing
from most of the variables.
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- [Narrator] That's right.
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Masters usually omit
standard deviations for dummies.