Small Study Regression Discontinuity Designs: Density Inclusive Study Size Metric and Performance

Abstract: Regression discontinuity (RD) designs are popular quasi-experimental studies in which treatment assignment depends on whether the value of a running variable exceeds a cutoff. RD designs are increasingly popular in educational applications due to the prevalence of cutoff-based interventions. In such applications sample sizes can be relatively small or there may be sparsity around the cutoff. We propose a metric, density inclusive study size (DISS), that characterizes the size of an RD study better than overall sample size by incorporating the density of the running variable. We show the usefulness of this metric in a Monte Carlo simulation study that compares the operating characteristics of popular nonparametric RD estimation methods in small studies. We also apply the DISS metric and RD estimation methods to school accountability data from the state of Indiana.