🔗 The Regression-Discontinuity Design
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The regression-discontinuity design. What a terrible name! In everyday language both parts of the term have connotations that are primarily negative. To most people "regression" implies a reversion backwards or a return to some earlier, more primitive state while "discontinuity" suggests an unnatural jump or shift in what might otherwise be a smoother, more continuous process. To a research methodologist, however, the term regression-discontinuity (hereafter labeled "RD") carries no such negative meaning. Instead, the RD design is seen as a useful method for determining whether a program or treatment is effective.