The Study That Hasn’t Been Done Yet

Anchored to: the call for comparative effectiveness research between crisis-informed and generic financial literacy

Here’s a study that, as far as I know, nobody has run yet: a direct comparison of housing stability outcomes between people who receive crisis-informed financial education and people who receive generic financial literacy instruction.

We have plenty of evidence that generic financial literacy shows minimal effectiveness for vulnerable populations. What we don’t have is a controlled comparison proving that a crisis-informed alternative does better, the kind of evidence that would let policymakers and funders make an informed choice between the two, rather than defaulting to whichever program happened to apply for the grant.

This is part of why my own dissertation research matters to me beyond the credential itself. The field doesn’t just need a better theoretical argument. It needs the empirical comparison that turns “this makes sense” into “this is demonstrated.” Seventeen years of outcomes at Fresh Start Housing is compelling practitioner evidence. It’s not yet the rigorous comparative study the field actually needs.

I’d rather name that gap honestly than claim more certainty than the current evidence supports.

If you had the resources to run one study that doesn’t exist yet in your field, what would it test?

Author: Sandra Roussel
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