What Do We Learn From Self-Evaluations of Training? A Comparison of Subjective and Objective Evaluations

Self-evaluations of program impact, notably subjective evaluations of the e¤ects of training, are wide-spread in both the public and the private sector – probably because self-evaluations o¤er an easy and low-cost alternative to rigorous experimental or econometric evaluations. In this paper, I analyze how subjective assessments of satisfaction with training compare to objective measures based on di¤erences in test scores before and after training. I …nd a complete lack of correspondence between the objective measure of learning and 11 subjective measures of satisfaction with aspects of the courses. This …nding suggests that either learning has no weight in the employees’subjective evaluations or subjective evaluations cannot be trusted. At this stage, we cannot fully ascertain whether subjective evaluations can be used as a substitute for econometric or experimental program evaluations, but the results found here suggests that this is not the case. JEL Classi…cation: C31, J01