Assume that you are a consultant engaged in a project to implement a major high-speed overpass extension to the most congested highway, linking rural provinces to a major Asian city of 12 million people. A major feature of this project is to implement an electronic toll collection system for this high-speed segment. The objective of the entire project was not just to relieve congestion, lower the cost of operating vehicles, and improve the quality of transport services. It was also initiated to help address the loss of revenue resulting from an antiquated and corruption-ridden system of manual toll collection.
You helped implement the toll collection system and returned three years later to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. Data on toll collections and traffic volumes are available on a day-to-day basis. For this Discussion, review this week’s Learning Resources and examine the effectiveness of the project.
Post an explanation of how you would analyze data for this type of project. Include in your explanation the type of design and analysis you might use to address the problem.
Langbein, L. (2012). Public program evaluation: A statistical guide (2nd ed.). Armonk, NY: ME Sharpe.
Chapter 6, “The Nonexperimental Design: Variations on the Multiple Regression Theme” (pp. 143–208)
McDavid, J. C., Huse, I., & Hawthorn, L. R. L. (2013). Program evaluation and performance measurement: An introduction to practice (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Chapter 7, “Concepts and Issues in Economic Evaluation” (pp. 271–308)
Spiers, N., Manktelow, B., & Hewitt, M. J. (2009). Practical statistics using SPSS. Retrieved from http://www.rds-yh.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/13_Practical_Statistics_Using_SPSS_Revision_2009.pdf
Walter, S. J. (2009). Using statistics in research. Retrieved from http://www.rds-yh.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/14_Using_Statistics_in_Research_Revision_2009.pdf
Institute for Digital Research and Education (IDRE). (n.d.). What statistical analysis should I use?Retrieved January 5, 2015, from http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/spss/whatstat/
Blank, R. M. (2002). Evaluating welfare reform in the United States. Journal of Economic Literature, 40(4), 1105–1166.
Lance, P., Guilkey, D., Hattori, A., & Angeles, G. (2014). How do we know if a program made a difference? A guide to statistical methods for program impact evaluation. Retrieved from http://www.cpc.unc.edu/measure/publications/ms-14-87-en
Evans, W. N., Farrelly, M. C., & Montgomery, E. (1999). Do workplace smoking bans reduce smoking? American Economic Review, 89(4), 728–747.
