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It pays to be ignorant: A simple political economy of rigorous program evaluation

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Author Info

  • Lant Pritchett

Abstract

This paper attempts to explain the scarcity of rigorous evaluations of public policy. I build a positive model to explain the "stylized fact" that there is under investment in the creation of reliable empirical knowledge about the impacts of public sector actions. The model shows how "advocates" of particular issues or solutions - the public action equivalent of entrepreneurs - have incentives to under invest in knowledge creation because having credible estimates of the impact of their preferred program may undermine their ability to mobilize political (budgetary) support.

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File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1384128032000096832
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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Taylor and Francis Journals in its journal Journal of Economic Policy Reform.

Volume (Year): 5 (2002)
Issue (Month): 4 ()
Pages: 251-269

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Handle: RePEc:taf:jpolrf:v:5:y:2002:i:4:p:251-269

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Web page: http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/link.asp?id=300262

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Related research

Keywords: Program Evaluation; Bureaucracy; Issue Advocates;

References

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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  1. Joshua Angrist & Eric Bettinger & Erik Bloom & Elizabeth King & Michael Kremer, 2002. "Vouchers for Private Schooling in Colombia: Evidence from a Randomized Natural Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1535-1558, December.
  2. Manning, Willard G, et al, 1987. "Health Insurance and the Demand for Medical Care: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(3), pages 251-77, June.
  3. Filmer, Deon & Hammer, Jeffrey S & Pritchett, Lant H, 2000. "Weak Links in the Chain: A Diagnosis of Health Policy in Poor Countries," World Bank Research Observer, World Bank Group, vol. 15(2), pages 199-224, August.
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Citations

Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. Development that Works: One Laptop per Child revisited
    by Pablo Ibarrarán in Eval Central on 2012-06-18 10:59:46
  2. Revisitando Una Laptop por Niño
    by Pablo Ibarrarán in Hacia el desarrollo efectivo on 2012-06-18 20:31:27
  3. Lant Pritchett v the Randomistas on the nature of evidence – is a wonkwar brewing?
    by Duncan in From Poverty to Power on 2012-11-21 08:00:30
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
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Cited by:
  1. Robert, Christopher & Zeckhauser, Richard, 2011. "The Methodology of Normative Policy Analysis," Working Paper Series rwp11-004, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
  2. Barrientos, Armando & Villa, Juan M., 2013. "Evaluating antipoverty transfer programmes in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa: Better policies? Better politics?," Working Papers UNU-WIDER Research Paper , World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
  3. Bamberger, Michael & Rao, Vijayendra & Woolcock, Michael, 2010. "Using mixed methods in monitoring and evaluation : experiences from international development," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5245, The World Bank.
  4. Lorenzo Moreno & Larissa Campuzano & Dan Levy & Randall Blair, 2009. "Hacia el Cierre de la Brecha en la Evaluación: Lecciones sobre Tres Recientes Evaluaciones de Impacto de Programas Sociales en América Latina y el Caribe," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 6606, Mathematica Policy Research.
  5. Miguel Szekely, . "Toward Results-Based Social Policy Design and Implementation - Working Paper 249," Working Papers 249, Center for Global Development.
  6. Copestake, James, 2007. "Mainstreaming Microfinance: Social Performance Management or Mission Drift?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 1721-1738, October.

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