With voters heading to the polls in a few weeks, it is the perfect time to consider how data and evidence can help us make progress on some of our nation’s greatest challenges. The next President and Congress need to make investing in what works a priority. To help make the case, we’ve created the #WhatWorks Reading List.
Our reading list features books, articles, reports, op-eds, and other online resources from current and former government officials, university professors, economists and other thought-leaders committed to making evidence-based policy-making the new normal in government.
We hope you’ll take a look at these thought-provoking publications. Share this list with your favorite policymaker. Share it with your favorite voter. And, please don’t forget to tweet us recommendations for our next reading list.
BOOKS
- Mario Morino. Leap of Reason: Managing to Outcomes in an Era of Scarcity. (2011).
- Results for America. Moneyball for Government. (2015)
- Ron Haskins and Greg Margolis. Show Me the Evidence: Obama’s Fight for Rigor and Results in Social Policy. (2014)
ARTICLES
- James Anderson. What City Halls Across America Say About Using Data and Evidence. The Huffington Post. (2015)
- Melody Barnes and Paul Schmitz. Community Engagement Matters (Now More Than Ever). Stanford Social Innovation Review (2016)
- Jeffrey Bradach and Abe Grindle. Transformative Scale: The Future of Growing What Works. Stanford Social Innovation Review. (2014)
- John Bridgeland and Robert Balfanz. Moneyball for Dropout Prevention. The Hill. (2015)
- Michael Gerson and Raj Shah. This Is How the U.S. Must Lead the Fight Against Zika. The Washington Post. (2016)
- Linda Gibbs and Robert Doar. Four Part Series on: New York City’s Turnaround On Poverty. Washington Monthly. (2016)
- Michele Jolin. Accelerating What Works. Stanford Social Innovation Review. (2016).
- Jim Shelton and Debby Bielak. How to Bet Big On The American Dream. The Atlantic. (2015)
REPORTS
- American Enterprise Institute and Brookings Working Group on Poverty. Opportunity, Responsibility, and Security: A Consensus Plan for Reducing Poverty and Restoring the American Dream. (2015)
- Esther Duflo, Michael Greenstone, Rohini Pande, and Nicholas Ryan. Research Summary: Truth-Telling by Third-Party Auditors and the Response of Polluting Firms: Experimental Evidence from India. (2013)
- Harvard Kennedy School’s Government Performance Lab. Overview of Results Driven Contracting: An Overview. (2016)
- J-PAL Policy Briefcase. Moving to Opportunity. (2015).
- Results for America. A 2016 Policy Playbook. Invest in What Works: How to Solve Our Nation’s Great Challenges. (2015)
OTHER ONLINE RESOURCES
- The Behavioral Insights Team Blog. (2016)
- Gordon Berlin. Using Evidence as the Driver of Policy Change: The Next Steps in Supporting Innovation, Continuous Improvement, and Accountability. (2016).
- Brian Elms, J.B. Wogan, and Maia Jachimowicz. What Works Cities: How Denver has saved over $15 million by investing in staff. (2016)
- Andy Feldman’s Government Innovator Podcast. Creating a results-focused city government: An interview with Michael Nutter, former Mayor of Philadelphia — Episode #138. (2016)
- GovEx Faculty and Staff. Center for Government and Excellence Resources. (2016)
- Patrick Lester’s Social Innovation Research Center Blog. More Data than Evidence in Evidence Commission’s First Meeting. (2016)
- Sunlight Foundation’s Public Policy for Public Data checklist. (2016)
- Urban Institute. The Evidence Collaborative. (2016)
- What Works Cities Blog and Resources. (2016)