Transcript peter

Peter Kelly
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Introduction: Who I am and what I did
Philosophy of impact evaluations
How to do a good evaluation
Collecting data
Ethical issues
Additional resources
Philosophy of impact evaluations
• Relationship to accountability
– Why needed
– Clean but fails
– Corrupt but succeeds
• About the weakest aspect
– Data quality
– External validity
• 250-point checklist
How to do a good evaluation
• Think of yourself as an investor in a similar
project—what do you want to know?
• Collect data yourself, know the language
• Ask respondents your research question
directly—when?
• Adjust theory to reality, not vice versa, but
beware of data mining
Collecting data
• No time like the present
• Don’t take no for an answer (advisers,
bureaucrats, collaborators)
• Offer something to collaborators, make it
part of a larger project
• Opinion on grants and conflicts of interest
Ethical issues
• Getting the right answer
• Research staff usually in much more
danger than subjects
Additional resources
• Validity checklist
• Safety for staff members