Westminster Applied Evaluation Workshop

A series of seminars organised by Policy Studies Institute and
the Centre for Employment Research

session four: Thursday 11 March, 4.30pm - 6.30pm

Evaluating Government Policy:
Should we use randomised trials?

Dr Carole J. Torgerson
Reader in Evidence-based Education at the University of York

Abstract

Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are widely used to evaluate new medical treatments in health care. Indeed, there is a legal requirement that before any new drug is marketed it has to be evaluated in more than one high quality randomised trial. However, some government policies, such as new education methods which have the potential to do more good or more harm to society than, say, a new wart cream, are rarely evaluated using the most robust method: the RCT. In this presentation I will outline the method of evaluation using randomisation. Then I will describe a ‘non-random’ sample of policies which affect large sections of the population, some of which have been evaluated using a RCT and some of which have not. I will conclude that it is feasible and quite straightforward to evaluate many policy changes using randomised trials. I will suggest some reasons why this hasn’t happened.

Venue:

Boardroom, HM Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ

Further information

Please contact Stefan Speckesser.