Targeting in Social Programs: Avoiding Bad Bets, Removing Bad Apples

183 Pages·2006·0.69 MB·English

by  Peter H. Schuck

Targeting
in
Social

Programs
Avoiding Bad Bets,
Removing Bad Apples
Peter H. Schuck & Richard J. Zeckhauser
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Targeting in
Social Programs
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Targeting in
Social Programs
Avoiding Bad Bets,
Removing Bad Apples
Peter H. Schuck
Richard J. Zeckhauser
brookings institution press
Washington,D.C.
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ABOUT BROOKINGS
The Brookings Institution is a private nonprofit organization devoted to research, educa-
tion, and publication on important issues of domestic and foreign policy. Its principal
purpose is to bring the highest quality independent research and analysis to bear on cur-
rent and emerging policy problems. Interpretations or conclusions in Brookings publica-
tions should be understood to be solely those of the authors.
Copyright © 2006
THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION
1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036
www.brookings.edu
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing
from the Brookings Institution Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
Schuck, Peter H.
Targeting in social programs : avoiding bad bets, removing bad apples / Peter H.
Schuck, Richard J. Zeckhauser.
p. cm.
Summary: “Provides a framework for analyzing the challenges involved in defining bad
bets and bad apples and discusses the safeguards that any classification process must pro-
vide. Examines public schools, public housing, and medical care and proposes policy
changes that could reduce the problems these two groups pose in social welfare pro-
grams”—Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8157-7880-6 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8157-7880-5 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Public welfare administration—United States. 2. Human services—Government
policy—United States. 3. United States—Social policy—1993–. I. Zeckhauser,
Richard. II. Title.
HV95.S38 2006
361.6'120973—dc22 2006029184
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials: ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Typeset in Adobe Garamond
Composition by Kulamer Publishing Services
Potomac, Maryland
Printed by R. R. Donnelley
Harrisonburg, Virginia
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We dedicate this work to our wives,
Marcy and Sally,
and to a Schuck–Zeckhauser friendship
that stretches over 50 years.
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1 Introduction 1
2 Conceptual Foundations of Target Efficiency 7
3 High Stakes, Misguided Evasions, and Bad Policies 27
4 Avoiding Bad Bets 46
5 Removing Bad Apples 75
6 Predictive Accuracy and Procedural Protection 99
7 Better Information, Better Targeting, and Better Policies 129
Notes 137
Index 163
vii
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Acknowledgments
T
his book could not have been written without the assistance
of many people and institutions. We benefited from com-
ments, constructive even when skeptical, from fellow scholars
including Henry Aaron, Richard Arum, David Cutler, Jack Don-
ahue, Lee Ann Fennell, Christopher Jencks, Ron Haskins, Jeffrey
Liebman, and Benjamin Sommers, as well as from participants in
seminars at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and the law
schools at New York University, Yale, and the University of Geor-
gia where we presented earlier versions of our work. Special thanks
go to David Super for reading several chapters and improving our
presentation. Two wise medical practitioners, Dr. Samuel Osher
and Dr. Randy Reinhold, pointed us in fruitful directions, and our
investigations of agency practices in New York City, presented in
chapter 5, were facilitated by public officials identified in the
notes. Outstanding and extensive research assistance was provided
by Melissa Cox (herself a Brookings co-author), who was assisted
at one point by Joey Fishkin—both members of the Yale Law
School class of 2007. Anda Bordean, Deanna Dong, Felipe Kast,
and Nils Wernerfelt, all Harvard students, effectively undertook
specific research tasks. Miriam Avins used her deft pen to greatly
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