Research Ethics

Introduction

Impact evaluations often involve the direct manipulation of people's personal or economic situations, collection of personal and/or sensitive data about people, and publication of results that have direct implications for political or economic governance. Ensuring that these tasks are undertaken in a way that is both protective of the individuals who are part of the study population as well as broadly ethical for the research question and context is a critical responsibility of research designers and a requirement for institutional, IRB, and government approval and support of any study.

Research with Human Subjects

Any research that involves economic intervention or data collection on specific individuals is almost certainly subject to human subjects ethics rules. This means that pre-approval by an institutional review board, as well as a human subjects education certificate from the NIH or other body for each researcher or assistant handling implementation or data.