Higher efficiency, extended lamp life...sounds like a silly question, doesn't it??? Not quite, though, because there's one big problem with electronic ballasts: Many of them are cheap crap.
Low quality electrolytic capacitors are common, as are non-safety-rated capacitors across the mains, along with the use of fusible resistors (which are nowhere near as safe as proper fuses). (See also - the problems with CFLs.)
I'm having a bit of a hard time deciding what to vote, but at least the old inductive ones are bulletproof (the ballast itself, that is).
