Social Experimentation, Program Evaluation, and Public Policy

This volume provides a single collection some of the best articles on social experimentation and program evaluation that have appeared in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (JPAM). Provides exposure to a variety of well-executed social experiments and evaluations for evidence-based public policy Examines the theory and conduct of evaluations and social experiments as they relate to their practical implementation in evidence-based policy making Provides exposure to the fundamental issues surrounding the conduct of evaluations as well as to the relative merits of social experiments and the ethics and use of evaluations

Table of Contents:
I. Preface (Maureen A. Pirog). II. The State of Social Experimentation and Program Evaluation (Maureen A. Pirog). III. Social Experiments Versus Quasi-Experiments. The Role of Random Assignment in Social Policy Research (Richard P. Nathan). The Role of Random Assignment in Social Policy Research (Robinson Hollister). Nathan Response to Robinson Hollister's Opening Statement (Richard P. Nathan). Hollister Response to Richard Nathan's Opening Statement (Robinson Hollister). Do Experimental and Nonexperimental Evaluations Give Different Answers About the Effectiveness of Government-Funded Training Programs? (David H. Greenberg, Charles Michalopoulos, and Philip K. Robins). How Close is Close Enough? Evaluating Propensity Score Matching Using Data from a Class Size Reduction Experiment (Elizabeth Ty Wilde and Robinson Hollister). Three Conditions under which Experiments and Observational Studies Produce Comparable Causal Estimates: New findings from within-study comparisons 27(4) (Thomas D. Cook, William R. Shadish, and Vivian C. Wong). IV. Randomized Experiments. Impacts of Abstinence-Only Education on Teen Sexual Activity, Risk of Pregnancy, and Risk of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (Barbara Devaney, Chris Trenholm, Ken Forston, Melissa Clark, Lisa Quay, and Justin Wheeler). Five-Year Effects of an Anti-Poverty Program on Marriage among Never-Married Mothers (Anna Gassman-Pines and Hirokazu Yoshikawa). Alternative Routes to Teaching: The Impacts of Teach for America on Student Achievement and Other Outcomes (Steven Glazerman, Daniel Mayer, and Paul Decker). V. Quasi-Experiments A. Natural Experiments. Anti-Depressants, Suicide, and Drug Regulation (Jens Ludwig and Dave E. Marcotte). Lowering Blood Alcohol Content Levels to Save Lives: The European Experience (Daniel Albalate). The Impact of the Family and Medical Leave Act (Jane Waldfogel). The Effects of State and Local Antidiscrimination Policies on Earnings for Gays and Lesbians (Marieka M. Klawitter and Victor Flatt). B. Pretests and Posttests with Comparison Groups and Selection Controls. A Cure for Crime: Can Mental Health Treatment Diversion Reduce Crime among Youth? (Allison Evans Cuellar, Larkin S. McReynolds, and Gail A. Wasserman). Cashing Out Food Stamps: Impacts on Food Expenditures and Diet Quality (Barbara Devaney and Thomas Fraker). C. Interrupted Time Series with Comparison Groups. The Effect of Drinking Age Laws and Alcohol-Related Crashes: Time-Series Evidence from Wisconsin (David N. Figlio). Evaluating the Effects of Automobile Safety Regulation (John D. Graham and Steven Garber). D. Posttests Only with Comparison Groups. Does WIC Work? The Effects of WIC on Pregnancy and Birth Outcomes (Marianne P. Bitler and Janet Currie). The Changing Association between Prenatal Participation in WIC and Birth Outcomes in New York City (Ted Joyce, Diane Gibson, and Silvie Colman). The Changing Association between Prenatal Participation in WIC and Birth Outcomes in New York City: What Does It Mean? (Marianne P. Bitler and Janet Currie). Interpreting the WIC DEBATE (Jens Ludwig and Mathew Miller). E. Regression Discontinuity Design. An Effectiveness-Based Evaluation of Five State Pre-Kindergarten Programs (Vivian C. Wong, Thomas D. Cook, W. Steven Barnett, and Kwanghee Jung). VII. Meta-Analyses. Assessing Evidence of Environmental Inequities: A Meta-Analysis (Evan J. Ringquist). VIII. Implementation, Performance Management, and Program Impacts. Linking Program Implementation and Effectiveness: Lessons from a Pooled Sample of Welfare-to-Work Experiments (Howard S. Bloom, Carolyn J. Hill, and James A. Riccio). Exploring the Relationship between Performance Management and Program Impact: A Case Study of the JPTA (Burt S. Barnow). IX. Ethics and Human Subjects. Toward a More Public Discussion of the Ethics of Federal Social Program Evaluation (Jan Blustein). The Ethics of Federal Social Program Evaluation: A Response to (Blustein Burt S. Barnow). To Learn or Not to Learn (Howard Rolston). Comments on Dr. Blustein's Paper, "Toward a More Public Discussion of the Ethics of Federal Social Program Evaluation" (Peter Z. Schochet). Jan Blustein's Response (Jan Blustein). X. The Use of Program Evaluations by Policy Makers. The Dissemination and Utilization of Welfare-to-Work Experiments in State Policymaking (David Greenberg, Marvin Mandell, and Matthew Onstott).