Policy experimentation and impact evaluation: The case of school vouchers in New Zealand

Abstract

Experimentation is often necessary when there is a great deal of ambiguity surrounding what policy or reform will work to achieve desired outcomes. Given the risks involved, it is critical that such experiments are backed by an effective evaluation framework so that unsuccessful policies can be discarded and successful ones scaled up. While economic and political ideologies play an important role in the design of all policies, in practice and regardless of ideology, the policies that stand the test of time are those that suitably meet policy objectives. This chapter analyses the deregulation of schools in New Zealand in the 1990s (the Tomorrow’s Schools policy) to demonstrate the role of policy experiments and outcome evaluations in continuous policy design. The discussion highlights the significance of policy evaluations for guiding policy-retention and fine-tuning.