‘Evidence-based’ approach and RCTs: Can they distort policy-making?

In Focus by The Hindu · Oct 27, 2025 · 40m

Evidence-based policy. Randomised Control Trials or RCTs. These are buzzwords in developmental policy these days. They have become almost synonymous with each other. The ‘evidence’ in ‘evidence-based’ has largely come to mean whatever data is produced by one method of research – RCTs.

But as some economists have been trying to tell us, RCTs have their limits. Regardless of whether it is RCTs, or some other research methodology, is it wise to let so-called ‘evidence’ be the sole arbiter of public policy? What are the ways in which ‘evidence-based’ approaches can go wrong, and how have RCTs…