Eric Chyn of University of Texas at Austin reviews “Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman's Bank” by Justene Hill Edwards. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Chronicles the history of the Freedman's Bank from the perspective of the freed people who invested in the bank as depositors and the experiences of the bank's administrators, detailing how Black depositors' experiences with the bank, and the federal government's unwillingness to hold the perpetrators of its demise accountable, represented an under-explored aspect of the White racial violence that characterized Black people's lives during the Reconstruction and during the Gilded Age.”

This article provides empirical researchers with an introduction and guide to research designs based on variation in judge and examiner tendencies to administer treatments or other interventions. We review the basic theory behind this research design, outline the assumptions under which the design identifies causal effects, describe empirical tests of the conditions for identification, and discuss trade-offs associated with choices researchers must make for estimation. We demonstrate concepts and best practices in an empirical case study that uses an examiner tendency research design to study the effects of pretrial detention.