Design Rejection

The analyst should reject or defer a design when the requested causal statement is unsupported. These are review criteria, not an automated GeoSC gate. The library enforces the data contract and configured diagnostic gates; the analyst remains responsible for eligibility, identification and decision use. Stop when:

• treatment, outcome, geography, or measurement window is unresolved;
• treatment exposure cannot be separated from donors;
• the panel cannot satisfy the explicit data contract;
• no substantively eligible donor pool remains;
• pre-period fit is materially inadequate or dependent on an implausible donor;
• placebo support cannot resolve the pre-specified alpha;
• power is inadequate for the commercially plausible effect range;
• simulation failures or DGP sensitivity make MDE unstable;
• required assumption checks fail or inference status is failed;
• conclusions reverse under small, equally defensible specifications.

Some failures can be repaired by changing geography, outcome, history, duration, or eligibility. That creates a new design and requires a new power assessment. If no repair is defensible before treatment, document the experiment as descriptive or infeasible. A forced estimate is not a more helpful answer.