Getting policy-makers to listen to field experiments

We start with the premise that the greater use of field experiments in policy would lead to the more efficient use of scarce resources. This paper asks why field experiments are not used as widely as they could be and considers what can be done to increase their use. We review the most commonly encountered hurdles in getting field experiments to be taken seriously by policy-makers. We begin with some common misconceptions about ethics and logistics and then illustrate two advances-the integration of field experiments with cost-effectiveness analysis and wellbeing measures-that can be highlighted in order to get policy-makers excited about the idea of rolling out field experiments. We provide a hands-on roadmap of the points at which key concepts and practical solutions should be introduced in order to get a field experiment up and running for policy purposes.