Using Propensity Scoring to Estimate ProgramRelated Subgroup Impacts in Experimental Program Evaluations

This article discusses the use of propensity scoring in experimental program evaluations to estimate impacts for subgroups defined by program features and participants' program experiences. The authors discuss estimation issues, provide specification tests, and review an overlooked data collection design—obtaining predictions that program intake staff make about applicants' likely assignments and experiences—that could improve the quality of matched comparison samples. They demonstrate the approach's effectiveness in producing credible subgroup findings using data from Mathematica's Job Corps evaluation.