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Governmental Failures in Evaluating Programs

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  • Glazer, Amihai
  • Hassin, Refael

Abstract

Consider a government that adopts a program, sees a noisy signal about its success, and decides whether to continue the program. Suppose further that the success of a program is greater if people think it will be continued. This paper considers outcomes when government cannot commit. The authors find that welfare can be higher when information is poor, that government should at times commit to continuing a program it believes had failed, and that a government which fears losing power may acquire either too much or too little information. Copyright 1998 by Kluwer Academic Publishers

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  • Glazer, Amihai & Hassin, Refael, 1998. "Governmental Failures in Evaluating Programs," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 94(1-2), pages 105-115, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:94:y:1998:i:1-2:p:105-15
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    Cited by:

    1. Dur, Robert A J, 2001. "Why Do Policy Makers Stick to Inefficient Decisions?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 107(3-4), pages 221-234, June.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D6 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics
    • D7 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making
    • H - Public Economics

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