Program evaluation as a decision problem

Rajeev Dehejia ()

No 0102-23, Discussion Papers from Columbia University, Department of Economics

Abstract: I argue for thinking of program evaluation as a decision problem. There are two steps. First, a counselor determines which program (treatment or control) each individual joins, based for example on maximizing the probability of employment or expected earnings. Second, the policymaker decides whether: to assign all individuals to treatment or to control, or to allow the counselor to choose. This framework has two advantages. Individualized assignment rules (known as profiling) can raise the average impact, improving cost effectiveness by exploiting treatment-impact heterogeneity. Second, it accounts systematically for inequality and uncertainty, and the policymaker's attitude toward these, in the evaluation.

Date: 2002
View list of references

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.econ.colu ... Ec/pdf/DP0102-23.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Program Evaluation as a Decision Problem (1999)
Journal Article: Program evaluation as a decision problem (2005)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Papers from Columbia University, Department of Economics
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Discussion Paper Coordinator ().