Can Economic Development Programs Be Evaluated?

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. I. Types of Evaluations Practitioners often disagree with professional evaluators, particularly academic evaluators, about what is a satisfactory evaluation. For some practitioners a response to a question asked of a recipient of a state or local economic development program concerning the number of jobs "saved" or "created" by government assistance constitutes "proof" that the program is worthwhile. For the evaluator, however, such responses may be suspect. Some of the disagreements over evaluation methodologies between practitioners and academics stem from conflicting opinions about what constitutes evaluation. One of the major text books in the field defines evaluation as, the systematic application of social research procedures in assessing the conceptualization and design, implementation, and utility of social intervention programs. (Rossi and Freeman, 1985: p. 19) The book then elaborates: evaluation research involves the use of social research methodologies to judge and to improve the planning, monitoring, effectiveness and efficiency [emphasis ours] of health, education, welfare, and other human services programs. (p. 19) A fairly broad definition as to what constitutes evaluation is reasonable. Thus the concepts of planning, monitoring, effectiveness, and efficiency have a place in the evaluation of economic development programs.