This is a difficult topic especially when it comes to public finance.

An example: I live in Czechia and our universities are mostly publicly funded. In an ideal scenario resources should be allocated to achieve some noble but vague goal - to have a have population as well educated as possible, while also doing it efficiently in terms of money and time. But how should we divide the money available between different universities to achieve this goal?

One of the most important factors currently used is the number of students studying at each university. But this indicator leads to weird behavior. The universities start to favor quantity over quality. They might, for example make the exams easier to keep weaker students around. Or they might admit more students than teachers can reasonably handle.

You could choose a different metric and solve this issue, but most likely some other damaging behavior will replace the previous one. At the same time, relying on intuition might not play well with the current push for governmental transparency. It would require an enlightened incorruptible leader to make the decisions. And the public might demand objectivity.

It's a difficult problem.