Quiz time. Who said that policy makers should be ready for:
…an experimental approach to social reform, an approach in which we try out new programmes designed to cure specific social problems, in which we learn whether or not these programmes are effective, and in which we retain, imitate, modify or discard them on the basis of apparent effectiveness on the multiple imperfect criteria available
and went on to advocate:
the general ethic, advocated here for public administrators as well as social scientists, is to use the very best method possible, aiming at ‘true experiments’ with random control groups
The answer, RCT fans, is Donald T. Campbell, a Prof at Northwestern University, writing in 1969, before many of the current crop of ‘randomistas’ were even born. The full article, a masterpiece of intelligent writing on policy relevant research, is here.
H/t John Appleby
