Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Data in Welfare Policy Evaluations in the United States

Researchers have made significant efforts to combine quantitative and qualitative methods in welfare reform policy research in the United States. This paper draws on several examples arising from the American experience to argue that mixed-methods research (particularly, but not exclusively, with integrated sampling, data collection, and data analysis) can yield important and unexpected insights that neither method alone could generate. We caution that each method has strengths and weaknesses that must be borne in mind so as not to oversell the promise of mixed-methods research.