Elizabeth A. Stuart|Anna Rhodes
Generalizing Treatment Effect Estimates From Sample to Population: A Case Study in the Difficulties of Finding Sufficient Data
Johns Hopkins University|Johns Hopkins University
given increasing concerns relevance research policy practice growing interest assessing enhancing external validity randomized trials determining useful given randomized trial informing policy question specific target populationthis article highlights recent advances assessing enhancing external validity focus data needed make ex post statistical adjustments enhance applicability experimental findings populations potentially different study samplewe use case study illustrate generalize treatment effect estimates randomized trial sample target population particular comparing sample children randomized trial supplemental program head start centers researchbased developmentally informed study national population children eligible head start represented head start impact studyfor case study common data elements trial sample population limited making reliable generalization trial sample population challengingto answer important questions external validity publicly available data needed addition future studies make effort collect measures similar data sets measure comparability population data sets randomized trials use samples convenience greatly enhance range research policy relevant questions answered