Methodological Issues in Conducting Impact Assessments of PSD Programs

This contribution to the Impact Assessment Primer Series reviews the methodological options available to impact assessment researchers—including both quantitative and qualitative methods, their relative strengths and weaknesses, and their related implications—and it reviews important methodological issues that arise in designing impact assessments, discusses their implications for assessment findings, and offers suggestions for dealing with them. The article concludes with a description of minimally acceptable methodological standards for conducting impact assessments of PSD programs.