This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Abt, C. C. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Abt, C. C. Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

The Public Good, the Private Good, and the Evaluation of Social Programs

How Inept Government Requirements Increase Costs and Reduce Effectiveness

Abt Associates Inc

Evaluation of the productivity of government-applied social research is considered from the aspects of the several major government and public constituencies concerned, in terms of "Whose benefits? Whose costs?" Public and government concepts of the public good in evaluation research are differentiated. Government-imposed constraints on the quality and quantity of evaluation research are outlined and their impacts considered. Constraints on research quality imposing unnecessary costs include misregulation of sponsored social research by rigid procurement regulations inappropriately modeled on military hardware procurement, rigid overspecification of research tasks, counter- productively cumbersome and costly OMB survey clearance procedures, and inefficient long-term investment. Some impacts on research community employment security, professional development, and R&D investment are considered. A need to disseminate more explicit standards of effective and effectively managed evaluation research is expressed.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?