This chapter presents some concluding thoughts. It argues that the traditional litmus test of the high technical quality of an evaluation study has been acceptance of the research in peer-reviewed journals. As shown in the references provided in the book, the research conducted on New Jersey’s Family Cap has met this standard many times over. However, a vastly different picture of the evaluation’s technical quality is obtained from the widely disseminated, in-house publications produced by policy centers like the American Enterprise Institute-linked Welfare Reform Academy and the Alan Guttmacher Institute.
Keywords: Family Cap, welfare reform, social policy research, New Jersey,