Behavioural economics is a branch of economics which, using concepts from psychology and experimental analysis, studies the decision-making and person (consumer)-selection processes by formulating alternative behavioural models with respect to classic economics theory. The "success" of a public intervention also depends on the individual's satisfaction following the choice made. Individuals may make choices in accordance with on their own preferences, including for irrational reasons. The final decision may in fact be influenced by psychological-social factors. These include: the way the alternatives are presented (framing effect), the individual's contingent situation at the time the decision is taken and the presence of non-relevant alternatives (context dependency), social pressures, other people's persuasive force, and the emotional state of the person making the choice.

The fundamental problem, therefore, is how to estimate these irrational individual preferences.

Beneficiary perception surveys (BPSs) are an investigation method designed to collect information on beneficiaries' opinion of the effect that a given public policy has had on them. BPSs survey beneficiaries' perception of the intervention through hypothetical questions on what their condition would have been like in the absence of the intervention. The effect is measured by comparing the current situation with the estimated situation obtained by aggregating interviewees' answers to these hypothetical questions. By using BPSs a hypothetical counterfactual situation (see intra) can be estimated with respect to the intervention, even in the absence of the necessary conditions for a true counterfactual reconstruction (especially if the data to carry out a reliable comparison between treated and non-treated or between different time periods are not available). However, they also risks exposing the estimate to the effect of possible distortions, voluntary or involuntary, of interviewees' perceptions and responses with respect to reality. Moreover, if only beneficiaries are interviewed, this can produce distorted results in all those cases where, to estimate the effect of a policy, it might be necessary to also take potential beneficiaries into consideration (i.e. those individuals eligible for a given treatment).

Source:

- Martini A. and Sisti M., Valutare il successo delle politiche pubbliche, Bologna 2009, p. 283 et seq.