On the use of a Pre-Analysis Plan: An application in the social sciences

The Pre-Analysis Plan (PAP) is a protocol intended to specify, in advance, the technical details of a research project. This paper has a twofold aim. First, it offers an overview of the use, applications, and implications of the increasingly common practice of adopting PAPs in economics and the social sciences. Second, it presents a case study: the PAP developed for the research project entitled A Survey-Based Impact Evaluation of the NRRP on Italian Municipalities. It outlines the project’s rationale, primary outcome variables, testable hypotheses, sample design, and the structure of the survey in which Italian municipalities participated and through which data were collected. The paper concludes with a discussion of the strengths and limitations of employing a PAP in the context of the research project previously presented.