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Evaluation and Metrics

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Energy-Based Economic Development

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Abstract

With the increased prevalence of EBED-related initiatives, evaluators are increasingly attracted to this topic area, and the number of evaluations in this domain will likely increase. Evaluations offer information that generates a shared understanding of what works well and what does not in areas of practice. In particular, a collection of quality evaluations in this domain will facilitate a stronger community of research and practice in EBED. To help guide evaluations, this chapter provides a review of the state of EBED evaluations in the peer-reviewed literature and suggests how a stronger understanding of the holistic nature of EBED can strengthen evaluations in the future. The discussion in this chapter focuses on outcome measures, type of initiatives studied, methodological approaches, and timing and research design. This chapter also offers suggestions for evaluators to consider employing as the field advances.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Five separate researchers in 2010 and 2012 conducted independent literature reviews and compared their lists of relevant literature. They read all articles identified to determine whether the effort under analysis was an EBED-related activity and whether the study presented quantitative outcome measures.

  2. 2.

    It is important to note that studies commonly measure the GHG emissions from energy projects. We do not, however, include these studies in Table 5.1 if they do not have an explicit economic development component as well, as defined in either the project approach (refer to Chap. 3) or in the outcome metrics.

  3. 3.

    Distributed generation refers to small-scale, localized energy systems, either at the household, business, or community level. Brass and her colleagues’ study includes distributed generation projects at all three of these levels.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, 1315 East Tenth Street, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA

    Sanya Carley

  2. RTI International, 3040 E. Cornwallis Road, Research Triangle Park, NC, 27709-2194, USA

    Sara Lawrence

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  1. Sanya Carley
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  2. Sara Lawrence
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Correspondence to Sanya Carley .

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Carley, S., Lawrence, S. (2014). Evaluation and Metrics. In: Energy-Based Economic Development. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6341-1_5

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