Beyond Manipulation: Administrative Sorting in Regression Discontinuity Designs

Abstract This paper elaborates on administrative sorting, a threat to internal validity that has been overlooked in the regression discontinuity (RD) literature. Variation in treatment assignment near the threshold may still not be as good as random even when individuals are unable to precisely manipulate the running variable. This can be the case when administrative procedures, beyond individuals’ control and knowledge, affect their position near the threshold non-randomly. If administrative sorting is not recognized it can be mistaken as manipulation, preventing fixing the running variable and leading to discarding viable RD research designs.