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Woolcock focuses on the utility of qualitative case studies for addressing the decision-maker’s perennial external validity concern: What works there may not work here. He asks how to generate the facts that are important in determining whether an intervention can be scaled and replicated in a given setting. He focuses our attention on three categories: 1) causal density, 2) implementation capability, and 3) reasoned expectations about what can be achieved by when. Experiments are helpful for sorting out causally simple outcomes like the impact of deworming, but they are less insightful when there are many causal pathways, feedback loops, and exogenous influences. Nor do they help sort out the effect of mandate, management capacity, and supply chains, or the way results will materialize – whether some will materialize before others or increase or dissipate over time. Analytic case studies, Woolcock argues, are the main method available for assessing the generalizability of any given intervention.

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5 - Will It Work Here? Using Case Studies to Generate ‘Key Facts’ About Complex Development Programs

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5 - Will It Work Here? Using Case Studies to Generate ‘Key Facts’ About Complex Development Programs

Summary