Evaluations: Hidden Costs, Questionable Benefits, and Superior Alternatives

Bruno Frey and Margit Osterloh

CREMA Working Paper Series from Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA)

Abstract: Research evaluation is praised as the symbol of modern quality management. We claim firstly, performance evaluations in research have higher costs than normally assumed, because the evaluated persons and institutions systematically change their behavior and develop counter strategies. Moreover, intrinsic work motivation is crowded out and undesired lock-in effects take place. Secondly, the benefits of performance evaluations are questionable. Evaluations provide too little information relevant for decision-making. In addition, they lose importance due to new forms of scientific cooperation on the internet. Thirdly, there exist superior alternatives. They consist in careful selection and supportive process coaching ? and then leave individuals and research institutions to direct themselves.

Keywords: Evaluation; rankings; hidden costs; multi tasking; intrinsic motivation; control theory; selection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C44 D02 D61 D72 H52 I23 M12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006-08, Revised 2006-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec and nep-cbe
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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Working Paper: Evaluations: Hidden Costs, Questionable Benefits, and Superior Alternatives (2006)
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