Florencia Hnilo

Florencia Hnilo is a PhD candidate in Economics at Stanford University. Her research combines development economics, economic history, and behavioral economics to study the determinants and consequences of violence and discrimination. Before her studies at Stanford, she worked as a research assistant at the University of San Andres, Argentina, and as an external research assistant for Professor Alberto Cavallo at the Harvard Business School. Florencia holds a BA in Economics from the University of Buenos Aires and a MA in Economics from the University of San Andres.

King Center Supported Research

2025 - 2026 Academic Year | Graduate Student Fellowship

RCTs, Awareness, and Assignment Bias 

Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) are the gold standard for evaluating the impact of economic policies, from cash transfers to agricultural training programs. Their credibility rests on the Stable Unit Treatment Value Assumption: a subject's behavior is only affected by the treatment she randomly receives, isolating the causal effect of the intervention by creating comparable groups. However, this premise relies on a critical and untested assumption: that the act of randomization itself does not systematically alter participants' behavior. My project challenges that assumption, arguing that the very process of conducting an RCT and informing participants of their group assignment can induce behavioral and social responses that distort measured treatment effects.