Francesca Pagnotta

All Publications

• Using AI to Generate Option C Scaling Ideas: A Case Study in Early Education Fatchen, F., List, J. A., Pagnotta, F. National Bureau of Economic Research. 2025

  Abstract

  In recent years, field experiments have reshaped policy worldwide, but scaling ideas remains a thorny challenge. Perhaps the most important issue facing policymakers today is deciding which ideas to scale. One approach to attenuate this information problem is to augment traditional A/B experimental designs to address questions of scalability from the beginning. List 2024 denotes this approach as “Option C” thinking. Using early education as a case study, we show how AI can overcome a critical barrier in Option C thinking – generating viable options for scaling experimentation. By integrating AI-driven insights, this approach strengthens the link between controlled trials and large-scale implementation, ensuring the production of policy-based evidence for effective decision-making.