Evaluating Government Technology Programmes: the Case of Manufacturing Extension

In 1994, federal and state governments in the United States spent approximately US$2 848 million on programmes designed to encourage businesses to discover, develop and adopt improved technologies and business practices, and this sum is growing. It is important to taxpayers and policy makers to see if these technology programmes have the desired impact and that this money is well spent. Unfortunately, very few programmes are ever credibly evaluated. This paper discusses the issues involved in evaluating such programmes in the context of reviewing recent efforts to evaluate a particular programme: Manufacturing Extension. While differences exist between this and other technology programmes, we believe that many of the lessons learned in evaluating manufacturing extension can be applied elsewhere.