Examination of the empirical research environment of program evaluation: methodology and application

The study dealt with a research environment in which the treatment effect is heterogeneous, and in which individuals use their assessments of the treatment effect to decide whether or not to enroll in an intervention program. In this article, a new methodology is proposed for examining the validity of the specified research environment in a given intervention program and database. The methodology is based on direct examination of the assumptions underlying that research environment. Comparison of the commonly used verification method with the one proposed here revealed that these methods are complementary rather than substitutional.