Data budget

A brief by the Pew-MacArthur Results First Initiative outlines steps that state and local governments can take to more effectively use data to inform their budget decisions. Despite an increased emphasis on data to show “what works,” many governments allocate resources based on anecdotes and inertia, repeatedly funding programs with limited knowledge of the outcomes they achieve. The brief suggests that governments create inventories of funded programs and assess the evidence of their effectiveness, require agencies to justify requests for new funding with rigorous research on effectiveness, and embed evidence requirements into agency contracts and grants to ensure that research guides program activities.