Buch, Englisch, Band 589, 236 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 351 g
Reihe: The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Series
Making Social Science More Experimental
Buch, Englisch, Band 589, 236 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 351 g
Reihe: The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Series
ISBN: 978-0-7619-2858-4
Verlag: Sage Publications, Inc
Authors of the September volume argue that this level of investment in the "gold standard" of research designs is insufficient for a wide range of reasons. Randomized controlled trials, for example, are far better at controlling selection biases and chance effects than are other observational methods, while econometric and statistical techniques that seek to correct for bias fall short of their promise. The volume dramatically demonstrates that alternative methods generate different (and often substantially wrong) estimates of program effects. Some research based on nonexperimental research designs actually mislead policy makers and practitioners into supporting programs that don't work, while ignoring others that do.
Authors of this volume also directly address critiques of experimental designs, which range from questions about their practicality to their ethics. Some of these arguments are well taken, but addressable. The authors, however, reject other arguments against controlled tests as unfounded and damaging to social science.
Policymakers will find these articles invaluable in better understanding how alternative research methods can mislead as much as enlighten. Students and researchers will be confronted with powerful arguments that question the use of nonexperimental techniques to estimate program effects.
This volume throws the gauntlet down. We challenge you to pick it up.