Advancing the Power of Economic Evidence to Inform Investments in Children, Youth, and Families
Date
2016
Journal Title
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Publisher
The National Academies Press
Abstract
Economic evidence, even of the highest quality, may not be used effectively to inform
investment decisions if it is deemed irrelevant, infeasible, or difficult to interpret by its
consumers. Yet, evidence is often produced without considering the end-user’s needs, values,
and capacity to access and analyze the evidence—i.e., the context for evidence use.
From its review of the salient research, the committee drew a set of conclusions about the
utility and use of evidence to inform investments in children, youth, and families. For example,
the infrastructure for developing, accessing, analyzing, and disseminating research evidence
often has not been developed in public agencies and private organizations; interactive, ongoing,
collaborative relationships between decision makers and researchers and trusted knowledge
brokers are a promising strategy for improving the use of economic evidence; and that growing
interest in performance-based financing is likely to increase the demand for economic evidence
to inform decisions on investments in children, youth, and families. Moreover, whether evidence
is used varies significantly according to the type of investment decision being made and the
decision maker’s incentives (or lack thereof) for its use. In short, the committee determined that
economic evidence has the potential to play an influential role in the decision-making process—
if the concerns and interests of decision makers are considered in the development and
communication of evidenc
Description
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Keywords
economic evidence, research, investment in youth, statistics
Citation
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2016). Advancing the Power of Economic Evidence to Inform Investments in Children, Youth, and Families. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23481