Dr. Christopher Cotton, Jarislowsky-Deutsch Chair in Economic and Financial Policy and Director, John Deutsch Institute, recently published "Rigor is not readiness: The PERL framework for evidence-based policy" in Science.
Cotton argues that academics and policy makers are too quick to scale programs and implement policy based on limited or preliminary evidence. He argues that we often confuse a study's methodological rigor with its ability to provide generalizable insights. In response to this, Cotton develops the Policy Readiness Levels (PERL) framework, which considers what the evidence really says, what we do not know, and what actions it supports.
This research has also been shared via The Conversation, talk radio, and most recently, in an episode of the VoxDev Talks podcast.
Dr. Cotton is Jarislowsky-Deutsch Chair in Economic & Financial Policy and Professor of Economics at Queen’s University, where he also serves as Director of the John Deutsch Institute for the Study of Economic Policy (JDI). He also holds cross-appointments in the Department of Medicine and the School of Policy Studies, and teaches in the Smith School of Business.