Can Economic Development Programs be Evaluated?
Upjohn Institute Working Paper 95-29
Timothy J. Bartik and Richard D. Bingham
Abstract
The question addressed in this paper seems simple: Can economic development programs
be evaluated? But the answer is not simple because of the nature of evaluation. To determine
a program's effectiveness requires a sophisticated evaluation because it requires the evaluator
to distinguish changes due to the program from changes due to nonprogram factors. The
evaluator must focus on the outcomes caused by the program rather than the program's
procedures.
Evaluations can be divided into two categories process or formative evaluations and
outcome, impact, or summative evaluations. Process evaluations focus on how a program is
delivered. Impact evaluations focus on the program's results. Although process evaluations
are important, the focus of this chapter is on program outcomes thus the concern with impact
evaluations; however, both types of evaluations need to be defined.
NOTE: A revised version of this paper was published in R. Bingham and R. Mier, eds.,
Dilemmas of Urban Economic Development: Issues in Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1997, pp. 246-277.
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