Random Assignment in Social Policy Research

From your work at the FCC, likely you know that rigorous studies using random assignment are very costly, take a long time, and largely have only marginal impacts. Beyond that, the politics of getting research incorporated into policy is a difficult matter, and a colleague and I recently contributed to a dialogue on this subject that was published in JPAM (attached, see p. 166). Further, I have contributed to a new book by Steve Wandner that should published early next year, titled, Solving the Reemployment Puzzle: From Research to Policy, by the W.E. Upjohn Institute of Employment. It also tackles the knotty problem which your work group raises.

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0By-hlftoq8Z3ZjM1M2Q5MDktZTNiNS00Mjc0LWE2MjctNzgxNDk5MmNmOWQ2&hl=en