USING RANDOMIZED CONTROL DESIGNS IN EVALUATING SOCIAL SECTOR PROGRAMSIN DEVELOPING-COUNTRIES

Seven case studies-from Bolivia, Colombia, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragu a, Taiwan (China), and Turkey-demonstrate the feasibility of conductin g rigorous impact evaluations in developing countries using randomized control designs. This experience, covering a wide variety of settings and social programs, offers lessons for task managers and policymaker s interested in evaluating social sector investments. The main conclus ions are: first, policymakers interested in assessing the effectivenes s of a project ought to consider a randomized control design because s uch evaluations not only are feasible but also yield the most robust r esults. Second, the acute resource constraints common in developing co untries that often make program rationing unavoidable also present opp ortunities for adopting randomized control designs. Policymakers and p rogram managers need to be alert to the opportunities for building ran domized control designs into development programs right from the start of the project cycle because they, more than academic researchers or evaluation experts, are in the best position to ensure that opportunit ies for rigorous evaluations are exploited.