Ideology, public goods and welfare valuation: An experiment on allocating government budgets

This study demonstrates how experimental survey methods can be used to assess pre- ferences for budget-constrained combinations of public and publicly provided goods and services. The study shows how to calculate welfare changes based on preferences for increases and decreases in programs within particular budget portfolios, and quantifies the effect of ideology on valuations of public programs. The findings show that re- spondents, including conservatives, were reluctant to approve of cuts when they were faced with the exact definition of what they needed to give up or how a decrease would affect the provision of services.