ABSTRACT
Efforts to facilitate and promote the use of policy-related information are inextricably tied to the assumption that using such information in policymaking will result in a significant contribution to the improvement of societal functioning and human welfare. Efforts to promote such utilization as well as empirical studies of research utilization implicitly assume that the use of policy-related information is of positive value. Priorities in budget allocations do not necessarily reveal anything about use and misuse and positive/negative value. This chapter suggests that value judgments are faced in all phases of policy deliberation. It analyses what general criteria might be useful in judging when information is “of value” to federal government officials responsible for the formulation and implementation of substantive public policies and programs. The chapter aims to provide policymakers and their staffs with a tool that may be of help in solving some of the information problems the federal government faces.
