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Statisticians use a technique that leverages randomness to deal with the unknown
Across the social and biological sciences, statisticians use a technique that leverages randomness to deal with the unknown.
Patients drop out of clinical trials and survey respondents skip questions; schools fail to report scores, and governments ignore elements of their economies. Moreover, while statisticians can find ways to correct for this, Rubin realized that their methods tended to be finicky and specialized, with each situation practically requiring its own master’s thesis. When a government agency asked ETS to analyze a survey with missing data, Rubin proposed an unconventional but surprisingly simple solution: Don’t just impute once.
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