The case for evaluating training programs with randomized trials

This brief paper presents the reasons why I have come to conclude that the evaluation of the economic benefits of training programs will be greatly enhanced by the use of classical experimental methods where control and experimental groups are selected by random assignment (randomized trials). A simple comparison of earnings between control and experimental groups subsequent to participation in the experimental program then provides a simple and credible estimate of program success (or failure). The principal reason why randomized trials should be used in this field is that too much of the non-experimental estimation of the effects of training programs seems dependent on elements of model specification that cannot he subjected to powerful statistical tests.