Models and frameworks for public policy evaluation: A systematic review

Abstract

The need for governments in countries, at least in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), to somehow achieve greater well-being for their citizens is becoming increasingly evident; suffice it to review the social conflicts that have arisen in recent years in the region. However, despite the experience with which these tools have been used, it seems that the desired maturity has not been achieved, since for most LAC countries, according to international indicators, the effectiveness of their public policies is less than half of what is expected. On the other hand, from the academic world, there are many voices that for several years have been proposing and foreseeing that data science and its associated technologies are a great opportunity to reverse this situation, however, these same voices also warn of the potential danger of the use of these technologies, if not done in the right way. In this sense, the objective of this research is to learn about the models and frameworks that have been used both in academia and in practice to evaluate public policies, and whether they have had a holistic and multidimensional approach focused on well-being. After a systematic review of the relevant literature in recent years, it was found that there is a diversity of approaches that have been used to address the issue, but only a small number of them present characteristics that qualify them as holistic and multidimensional.