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Experimental Evaluations
Throughout its 50-year history, Abt Associates has produced groundbreaking, high-profile studies based on experimental evaluations. These include the Housing Allowance Demand Experiment, an experimental evaluation Abt conducted for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. This study became the foundation for the nation’s predominant safety-net housing program for the next 30 years.
Abt continues to be a leader in this research method, helping shape U.S. programs and policies that improve the economic and social well-being of children, youth, families, and workers.
An experimental evaluation is the most rigorous, impartial method for assessing the impact of a program or policy. It enables researchers to determine the causal effects of policy interventions and establish whether one intervention is more effective than the status quo or than another intervention.
Random assignment is the core procedure in experimental evaluations. By creating two statistically equivalent groups, a group exposed to an intervention and a control group not exposed to the intervention, random assignment allows researchers to estimate what would have happened in the absence of the intervention. In other words, random experimental evaluation can determine if outcomes for the treatment group represent an improvement over the status quo.