A universal basic income (UBI) is a regular, substantial, and unconditional cash income available to everyone, irrespective of their employment status or wealth. Its promise is the end of poverty as we know it.

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The federal government sponsors hundreds of programs designed to solve some of America's toughest challenges. The most important question facing policymakers and agency leadership is this: what public policies and programs work?

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One of the main criticisms of experimental evaluations is that they are conducted under such special circumstances that their results may not apply to other people, places, or times. A new wave of experimental evaluations is changing that.

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The World Health Organization's Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework seems to have all of the right elements: It calls for sharing influenza viruses, surveillance, stockpiles of medicines and vaccines, and more. Yet it rests on shaky footing.

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The federal government runs two programs to help poorer Americans feed their families. Evidence shows that if getting poor households to eat more healthy foods is a major policy goal, we should seriously consider limiting choice in food assistance.-

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At the center of the current education policy debate is the use of school vouchers to directly pay for children to attend whichever school they want. But what is the evidence on their effectiveness?

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I advocate using randomized experiments because they provide a high level of confidence in the results. But they aren't always possible or appropriate. So what criteria should researchers use to decide when to use them?

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Recently published evaluation results found that not all approaches to helping unemployed Americans find work were equally effective. Intensive services lead to higher earnings, but more time is needed to determine the medium-term impact.

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Abt evaluation experts Stephen Bell and Laura Peck examine concerns about social experiments and provide ways to avoid common pitfalls.

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A theme of the "New Management" is to better measure government performance and, in particular, the performance of individual workers. However, one must carefully weigh the costs and benefits of performance measurement.

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