Gathering Experimental Evidence To Improve the Design of Agricultural Programs

Designing or modifying voluntary agricultural programs involves deciding between many design options; testing the options with economic experiments can be a cost-effective tool for developing evidence about which work best. A range of experimental methods, from relatively inexpensive studies in controlled lab environments (often with students) to more expensive studies with targeted populations (such as farmers), can assess the benefits and costs of different design options.Randomized experiments conducted in the course of operating a program enable its managers to test the impact of potential changes in a real-world setting, and provide the strongest evidence of impact before implementing changes.