IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/evarev/v23y1999i4p445-469.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Using Cluster Random Assignment to Measure Program Impacts

Author

Listed:
  • Howard S. Bloom

    (Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation)

  • Johannes M. Bos

    (Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation)

  • Suk-Won Lee

    (New York University)

Abstract

This article explores the possibility of randomly assigning groups (or clusters) of individuals to a program or a control group to estimate the impacts of programs designed to affect whole groups. This cluster assignment approach maintains the primary strength of random assignment—the provision of unbiased impact estimates—but has less statistical power than random assignment of individuals, which usually is not possible for programs focused on whole groups. To explore the statistical implications of cluster assignment, the authors (a) outline the issues involved, (b) present an analytic framework for studying these issues, and (c) apply this framework to assess the potential for using the approach to evaluate education programs targeted on whole schools. The findings suggest that cluster assignment of schools holds some promise for estimating the impacts of education programs when it is possible to control for the average performance of past student cohorts or the past performance of individual students.

Suggested Citation

  • Howard S. Bloom & Johannes M. Bos & Suk-Won Lee, 1999. "Using Cluster Random Assignment to Measure Program Impacts," Evaluation Review, , vol. 23(4), pages 445-469, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:evarev:v:23:y:1999:i:4:p:445-469
    DOI: 10.1177/0193841X9902300405
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0193841X9902300405
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0193841X9902300405?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeffrey E. Harris, 1985. "Macroexperiments versus Microexperiments for Health Policy," NBER Chapters, in: Social Experimentation, pages 145-186, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. David H. Greenberg & Philip K. Robins, 1986. "The changing role of social experiments in policy analysis," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 5(2), pages 340-362.
    3. Howard S. Bloom & Larry L. Orr & Stephen H. Bell & George Cave & Fred Doolittle & Winston Lin & Johannes M. Bos, 1997. "The Benefits and Costs of JTPA Title II-A Programs: Key Findings from the National Job Training Partnership Act Study," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 32(3), pages 549-576.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rothstein, Jesse & Von Wachter, Till, 2016. "Social Experiments in the Labor Market," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt7957p9g6, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    2. Jeffrey Smith, 2000. "A Critical Survey of Empirical Methods for Evaluating Active Labor Market Policies," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 136(III), pages 247-268, September.
    3. Alan B. Krueger, 2002. "Inequality, Too Much of a Good Thing," Working Papers 845, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    4. Didem Koca, 2022. "Comparative Analysis of the Labor Market Structure and Active Labor Market Policies of G7 Countries and Turkey Between 2000-2020," Journal of Social Policy Conferences, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 0(83), pages 101-140, December.
    5. Eric Mbakop & Max Tabord‐Meehan, 2021. "Model Selection for Treatment Choice: Penalized Welfare Maximization," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(2), pages 825-848, March.
    6. Alexander Gelber & Adam Isen & Judd B. Kessler, 2014. "The Effects of Youth Employment: Evidence from New York City Summer Youth Employment Program Lotteries," NBER Working Papers 20810, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Ronald D'Amico & Peter Z. Schochet, "undated". "The Evaluation of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program: A Synthesis of Major Findings," Mathematica Policy Research Reports c6b34445ad854f5d8178f580f, Mathematica Policy Research.
    8. Bruno Crépon & Gerard J. van den Berg, 2016. "Active Labor Market Policies," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 8(1), pages 521-546, October.
    9. Martin Huber, 2012. "Identification of Average Treatment Effects in Social Experiments Under Alternative Forms of Attrition," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 37(3), pages 443-474, June.
    10. Undral Byambadalai, 2022. "Identification and Inference for Welfare Gains without Unconfoundedness," Papers 2207.04314, arXiv.org.
    11. Markus Frölich & Blaise Melly, 2013. "Identification of Treatment Effects on the Treated with One-Sided Non-Compliance," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(3), pages 384-414, November.
    12. Martin Huber, 2010. "Identification of average treatment effects in social experiments under different forms of attrition," University of St. Gallen Department of Economics working paper series 2010 2010-22, Department of Economics, University of St. Gallen.
    13. Isaiah Andrews & Toru Kitagawa & Adam McCloskey, 2018. "Inference on winners," CeMMAP working papers CWP31/18, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    14. James J. Heckman & Carolyn Heinrich & Jeffrey Smith, 2002. "The Performance of Performance Standards," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 37(4), pages 778-811.
    15. repec:pri:cepsud:87krueger is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Toru Kitagawa & Hugo Lopez & Jeff Rowley, 2022. "Stochastic Treatment Choice with Empirical Welfare Updating," Papers 2211.01537, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2023.
    17. Jonathan M.V. Davis & Sara B. Heller, 2017. "Rethinking the Benefits of Youth Employment Programs: The Heterogeneous Effects of Summer Jobs," NBER Working Papers 23443, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Douglas J. Besharov, 2009. "Presidential address: From the Great Society to continuous improvement government: Shifting from “does it work?” to “what would make it better?”," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(2), pages 199-220.
    19. David H. Greenberg & Marvin B. Mandell, 1991. "Research utilization in policymaking: A tale of two series (of social experiments)," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(4), pages 633-656.
    20. Bhatt, Monica & Heller, Sara & Kapustin, Max & Bertrand, Marianne & Blattman, Christopher, 2023. "Predicting and Preventing Gun Violence: An Experimental Evaluation of READI Chicago," SocArXiv dks29, Center for Open Science.
    21. Joshua D. Angrist & Alan B. Krueger, 2001. "Instrumental Variables and the Search for Identification: From Supply and Demand to Natural Experiments," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 69-85, Fall.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:evarev:v:23:y:1999:i:4:p:445-469. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.