AbstractThomas Jefferson recognized the value of reason and scientific experimentation in the eighteenth century. This chapter extends the idea in contemporary ways to standards that may be used to judge the ethical propriety of randomized trials and the dependability of evidence on effects of social interventions.
An introduction to a journal issue addressing evidence-based policies & the increasing use of place randomized trials to measure their effectiveness. This is done in light of the history of evidence-based policy & reviews of evidence by the Campbell Collaboration & Cochrane Collaboration. Articles are introduced that address the recent history of organizations examining & contemplating the use of place randomized trials, the various characters of "places" that have undergone randomized trials, the different ways that randomized trials have been initiated, the assorted types of justifications & motivations that have supported such trials, the actual mechanics of implementing randomized trials of different kinds, the technical resources & language used in designing trials, & the research approaches to learning more about place randomized trials. It is concluded that increasing people's understanding of, access to, resources for, & ease of use of place randomized trials will greatly enhance their importance & success. 19 References. R. Rodriguez
AbstractWhat does the work on tax expenditures over, the last decade imply about the better design of evaluations in this area? The tax expenditure evaluations are compared against a simple but sturdy general framework for conducting results evaluations that looks at target populations; the treatment, program, or policy; the response variable; how relative effects are estimated; and what happens when no effects are discovered.
AbstractRandomized field experiments have been regarded as a gold standard in producing good evidence about the effects of social programs. But they have not been easy to conduct. In the past decade, the use of alternative randomization plans and incentives has contributed to their operational feasibility; legal, ethical, and professional arguments for experimentation have matured; and expectations have become better aligned with practical constraints that are likely to be encountered.
This is a review of evidential ideas that appear in the Muqadimmah and India, Medieval Arabic works. The ideas concern numerical evidence, its collection, distortion, analysis, and interpretation, and its use in making statements about change and cause. Potential mistakes in educing the ideas from such translated texts are discussed briefly. Erudite attention to the topic is encouraged in the interest of understanding early parallels to contemporary evaluation problems.
