Effectiveness, efficiency, and equity tradeoffs in public programs: A citizen experiment
通过两项预注册的 vignette 实验，研究美国公众对 K-12 教育项目中有效性、公平与效率的权衡态度，发现公众能感知并重视有效性和公平，但不愿牺牲一方换取另一方，且对效率概念理解有限。
Abstract Debates over public programs frequently focus on questions of effectiveness, equity, and efficiency and the tradeoff among these objectives. Missing from the literature is whether the general public cares about these tradeoffs, can perceive such differences, and will act on them. This article reports on two pre‐registered vignette experiments where the effectiveness, equity, and efficiency are assessed relative to experimental treatments focused on U.S. K‐12 education involving test scores, equality of test scores, and program costs. One experiment focuses on equity in race and the other on equity in income. The experiments show that the general public perceives differences in program effectiveness and equity, values both, and is unwilling to tradeoff one for the other. The public cares about program costs, but it lacks a sophisticated understanding of efficiency as a concept. Inequalities in income appear to influence equity concerns more than those involving race.