Ulysses' pact or Ulysses' raft: Using pre-analysis plans in experimental and nonexperimental research

Economists have recently adopted preanalysis plans in response to concerns about robustness and transparency in research. The increased use of registered preanalysis plans has raised competing concerns that detailed plans are costly to create, overly restrictive, and limit the type of inspiration that stems from exploratory analysis. We consider these competing views of preanalysis plans, and make a careful distinction between the roles of preanalysis plans and registries, which provide a record of all planned research. We propose a flexible “packraft” preanalysis plan approach that offers benefits for a wide variety of experimental and nonexperimental applications in applied economics.