Evaluating Evaluations of Innovation Policy: Exploring Reliability, Methods, and Conflicts of Interest

PublikationBokkapitel
Christian Sandström, Elias Collin, Karl Wennberg

Sammanfattning

Expansions of innovation policies have been paralleled with an increase in the evaluations of such policies. Yet, there are few systematic evaluations of how such evaluations are conducted, by whom, and their overall conclusions. We analyze 110 evaluations of innovation policy in Sweden from 2005 to 2019. Our findings show that the majority of these evaluations are positive, about one-third are neutral in their conclusions, and very few are negative. The majority of evaluations were conducted by consulting firms, close to one-third by expert government agencies, and around 10% by university researchers or as self-evaluations by the governmental agencies responsible for the policy themselves. Few evaluations employed causal methods to assess the potential effects of policies. We discuss conflicts of interest and question the reliability of evaluations of innovation policy.

Collin, E., Sandström, C., & Wennberg, K. (2022). Evaluating Evaluations of Innovation Policy: Exploring Reliability, Methods, and Conflicts of Interest. Questioning the Entrepreneurial State, 157.


Liknande innehåll

Beyond the silver bullet: unveiling multiple pathways to school turnaround
Artikel (med peer review)Publikation
Arora-Jonsson, S., Demir, E. K., Norgren, A., & Wennberg, K.
Publiceringsår

2024

Publicerat i

Beyond the silver bullet: unveiling multiple pathways to school turnaround. School Effectiveness and School Improvement
, 1-36.

Sammanfattning

Research on school improvement has accumulated an extensive list of factors that facilitate turnarounds at underperforming schools. Given that context or resource constraints may limit the possibilities of putting all of these factors in place, an important question is what is necessary and sufficient to turn a school around. We use qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) of 77 Swedish schools studied over 12 years to answer this question. Our core finding is that there is no “silver bullet” solution. Instead, there are several distinct combinations of factors that can enable school turnaround. The local school context is essential for which combinations of factors are necessary and sufficient for school turnaround. We discuss implications for research on school improvement and education policy.

Seeking opportunity or socio-economic status? Housing and school choice in Sweden
Artikel (med peer review)Publikation
Andersson, F. W., Mutgan, S., Norgren, A., & Wennberg, K.
Publiceringsår

2024

Publicerat i

Urban Studies, 0(0).

Sammanfattning

Residential choices and school choices are intimately connected in school systems where school admission relies on proximity rules. In countries with universal school choice systems, however, it remains an open question whether families’ residential mobility is tied to the choice of their children’s school, and with what consequences. Using administrative data on all children approaching primary-school age in Sweden, we study to what extent families’ financial and socio-economic background affects mobility between neighbourhoods and the characteristics of schools chosen by moving families. Our findings show that families do utilise the housing market as an instrument for school choice over the year preceding their firstborn child starting school. However, while families who move do ‘climb the social ladder’ by moving to neighbourhoods with more households of higher socio-economic status, their chosen schools do not appear to be of higher academic quality compared to those their children would otherwise have attended.

Read the article here.

Learning from Overrated Mission-Oriented Innovation Policies: Seven Takeaways
BokkapitelPublikation
Henrekson, M., Sandström, C., & Stenkula, M.
Publiceringsår

2024

Publicerat i

Springer Nature.

Sammanfattning

This chapter integrates findings from several different case studies on mission-oriented innovation policies (MOIPs) and makes use of the existing literature to briefly describe three other missions: The War on Cancer, homeownership in the United States, and the Swedish Million Program. Together with the analyses in the other chapters of this volume, seven takeaways regarding mission-oriented innovation policies are developed and described: (1) wicked problems cannot be solved through missions, (2) politicians and government agencies are not exempt from self-interest, (3) MOIPs are subject to rent seeking and mission capture, (4) policymakers lack information to design MOIPs efficiently, (5) MOIPs distort competition, (6) government support programs distort incentives and result in moral hazard, and (7) MOIPs ignore opportunity costs. These seven takeaways are illustrated using the cases described in this chapter and elsewhere in this volume.

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