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A randomised route to better government
An evaluator-general would help policymakers understand which policies work, and which to drop.
- Andrew Leigh
- The Canberra Times
In the mid-1990s, researchers embarked on a massive clinical trial.
More than 16,000 post-menopausal women volunteered to be assigned randomly to a treatment group, receiving hormone-replacement therapy, or to a control group.
Many expected that the study would back the common view – based on observational studies – that taking estrogen plus progestin was good for these women’s health.
Five years in, the trial’s data and safety-monitoring board stopped the study.
Not only did the…