Building Smarter Data for Evaluating Business Assistance Programs

The SBA is publishing this guide on behalf of the Evaluating Business Technical Assistance Program working group. The Council of Economic Advisers and Office of Management and Budget formed the working group in 2013 to explore opportunities and overcome challenges in using administrative data to evaluate the impact of business assistance programs. This guide is designed for policy makers and program managers who make critical decisions concerning business assistance program design, delivery, and information collection. The guide identifies critical data and best practices that support the use and improvement of administrative data and other existing data sources for rigorous impact evaluations.