Background:Impact evaluations draw their data from two sources, namely, surveys conducted for the evaluation or administrative data collected for other purposes. Both types of data have been used in impact evaluations of social programs.Objective:This study analyzes the causes of differences in...

"When evaluating a pilot or demonstration program, there are risks from drawing inferences from a single test. This paper reviews the experiences of replication efforts from demonstrations using randomized controlled trials in the initial evaluation and the replications. Although replications of...

"An important decision that must be made in operating training programs targeted toward disadvantaged workers is whether the programs dictate the specific training programs that participants will take or they issue vouchers that permit participants to select their specific training programs....

"It is widely agreed that randomized controlled trials - social experiments - are the gold standard for evaluating social programs. There are, however, many important issues that cannot be tested using social experiments, and often things go wrong when conducting social experiments. This paper...

Barnow, Trutko, and Piatak focus on whether persistent occupation-specific labor shortages might lead to inefficiencies in the U.S. economy. They describe why shortages arise, the difficulty in ascertaining that a shortage is present, and how to assess strategies to alleviate the shortage.

This book examines the nature of the workforce development and UI policy decisions made nationwide in response to the recession, state and local administrators’ perspectives on the policy developments and economic challenges, and implementation of key Recovery Act provisions, with a particular...

Background:This article describes eight flaws that occur in impact evaluations.Method:The eight flaws are grouped into four categories on how they affect impact estimates: statistical imprecision; biases; failure of impact estimates to measure effects of the planned treatment; and flaws that...

"An important decision that must be made in operating training programs targeted toward disadvantaged workers is whether the programs dictate the specific training programs that participants will take or they issue vouchers that permit participants to select their specific training programs....