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Governmental Failures in Evaluating Programs

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  • Amihai Glazer

    (University of California, Irvine)

  • Refael Hassin

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 the optimal decision rule for continuing the program, both when government can and cannot commit. We 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.

Suggested Citation

  • Amihai Glazer & Refael Hassin, 1994. "Governmental Failures in Evaluating Programs," Public Economics 9406003, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwppe:9406003
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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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