On the “Why” of Social Experiments: Some Lessons on Overcoming Barriers from 45 Years of Social Experiments

Abstract

AbstractNearly a half century has passed since August 1968 when the first families were enrolled in the New Jersey Income Maintenance Experiment, the first large‐scale social policy evaluation to use random assignment. Over that time, the field of social policy experiments has expanded greatly with particularly fast growth occurring since the turn of the 21st century. This dramatic growth has several dimensions, including both the volume of experiments and the numbers of areas of social policy involved. This chapter focuses on the evolving contexts in which social policy experiments have taken place, with attention to how they have overcome obstacles to their use.