Policy Analysis : Concepts and Practice

by Weimer, David; Vining, Aidan R.

• ISBN13: 9780131830011
• ISBN10: 0131830015
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-01-01
• Publisher: Prentice Hall

Summary

This book both introduces and explores thehowsandwhysof the practices of public policy. It providesreality-basedpractical advice about how to actually conduct policy analysis anddemonstratethe application of advanced analytic techniques.A five-part organization emphasizes that policy analysis is client-oriented and raises ethical issues; provides rationales for public policy describing the limitations to effective public policy and generic policy solutions; gives practical advice about implementing policy analysis; presents several examples illustrating how analysts have approached policy problems and the differences that their efforts have made; and summarizes the role and work of the analyst and challenges the analyst to both "do-well and do-good."For individuals interested in policy analysis and the analytical process.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	xiii
List of Tables	xv
Preface	xvii
PART I: INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC POLICY ANALYSIS
Preview: The Canadian Salmon Fishery	1	(22)
Increasing the Social Value of the Canadian Salmon Fishery	2	(20)
Postscript and Prologue	22	(1)
For Discussion	22	(1)
What Is Policy Analysis?	23	(16)
Policy Analysis and Related Professions	24	(7)
Policy Analysis as a Profession	31	(4)
A Closer Look at Analytical Functions	35	(2)
Basic Preparation for Policy Analysis	37	(1)
For Discussion	38	(1)
Toward Professional Ethics	39	(15)
Analytical Roles	40	(3)
Value Conflicts	43	(8)
Ethical Code or Ethos?	51	(2)
For Discussion	53	(1)
PART II: CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS FOR PROBLEM ANALYSIS
Efficiency and the Idealized Competitive Model	54	(17)
The Efficiency Benchmark: The Competitive Economy	55	(2)
Market Efficiency: The Meaning of Social Surplus	57	(12)
Caveats: Models and Reality	69	(1)
Conclusion	70	(1)
For Discussion	70	(1)
Rationales for Public Policy: Market Failures	71	(42)
Public Goods	72	(19)
Externalities	91	(6)
Natural Monopoly	97	(7)
Information Asymmetry	104	(8)
Conclusion	112	(1)
For Discussion	112	(1)
Rationales for Public Policy: Other Limitations of the Competitive Framework	113	(19)
Thin Markets: Few Sellers or Few Buyers	114	(1)
The Source and Acceptability of Preferences	115	(4)
The Problem of Uncertainty	119	(5)
Intertemporal Allocation: Are Markets Myopic?	124	(4)
Adjustment Costs	128	(1)
Macroeconomic Dynamics	129	(1)
Conclusion	130	(1)
For Discussion	131	(1)
Rationales for Public Policy: Distributional and Other Goals	132	(24)
Social Welfare Beyond Pareto Efficiency	133	(9)
Substantive Values Other Than Efficiency	142	(5)
Some Cautions in Interpreting Distributional Consequences	147	(6)
Instrumental Values	153	(1)
Conclusion	154	(1)
For Discussion	155	(1)
Limits to Public Intervention: Government Failures	156	(36)
Problems Inherent in Direct Democracy	157	(6)
Problems Inherent in Representative Government	163	(16)
Problems Inherent in Bureaucratic Supply	179	(8)
Problems Inherent in Decentralization	187	(3)
Conclusion	190	(1)
For Discussion	191	(1)
Policy Problems as Market and Government Failure: The Madison Taxicab Policy Analysis Example	192	(17)
Regulation of the Madison Taxi Market	193	(11)
The Relationship between Market and Government Failures	204	(4)
Conclusion	208	(1)
For Discussion	208	(1)
PART III: CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS FOR SOLUTION ANALYSIS
Correcting Market and Government Failure: Generic Policies	209	(52)
Freeing, Facilitating, and Simulating Markets	210	(8)
Using Subsidies and Taxes to Alter Incentives	218	(16)
Establishing Rules	234	(12)
Supplying Goods through Nonmarket Mechanisms	246	(7)
Providing Insurance and Cushions	253	(6)
Conclusion	259	(1)
For Discussion	260	(1)
Adoption and Implementation	261	(34)
The Adoption Phase	263	(11)
The Implementation Phase	274	(10)
Thinking More Strategically about Policy Design	284	(10)
Conclusion	294	(1)
For Discussion	294	(1)
Government Supply: Drawing Organizational Boundaries	295	(14)
Production Costs, Bargaining Costs, and Opportunism Costs	297	(5)
Predicting Bargaining and Opportunism Costs	302	(4)
Can Opportunism Be Controlled by the Use of Not-for-Profits?	306	(1)
Assessing and Building Capacity	307	(1)
Conclusion	307	(1)
For Discussion	308	(1)
PART IV: DOING POLICY ANALYSIS
Gathering Information for Policy Analysis	309	(15)
Document Research	310	(8)
Field Research	318	(3)
Putting Document Review and Field Research Together	321	(1)
Conclusion	322	(1)
For Discussion	323	(1)
Landing on Your Feet: How to Confront Policy Problems	324	(39)
Analyzing Yourself: Meta-Analysis	325	(1)
The Client Orientation	326	(1)
Steps in Rationalist Policy Analysis	327	(2)
Problem Analysis	329	(14)
Solution Analysis	343	(14)
Communicating Analysis	357	(4)
Meta-Analysis Once Again: Combining Linear and Nonlinear Approaches	361	(1)
Conclusion	362	(1)
For Discussion	362	(1)
Goals/Alternatives Matrices: Some Examples from CBO Studies	363	(17)
Setting Out Broad Options: Auctioning Radio Spectrum Licenses	364	(2)
Quantitative Predictions: Restructuring the Army	366	(4)
Comparing Proposed Alternatives: Launching Digital Television	370	(6)
Combining Policy Alternatives: Improving Water Allocation	376	(3)
Conclusion	379	(1)
For Discussion	379	(1)
Cost-Benefit Analysis	380	(46)
A Preview: Increasing Alcohol Taxes	381	(1)
Identifying Relevant Impacts	382	(2)
Monetizing Impacts	384	(15)
Discounting for Time and Risk	399	(11)
Choosing among Policies	410	(3)
An Illustration: Taxing Alcohol to Save Lives	413	(12)
Conclusion	425	(1)
For Discussion	425	(1)
PART V: CASE STUDIES OF POLICY ANALYSIS
Cost-Benefit Analysis in a Bureaucratic Setting: The Strategic Petroleum Reserve	426	(26)
Background: Energy Security and the SPR	427	(5)
Analytical Approaches to the Size Issue	432	(11)
The Role of Analysis in the SPR Size Controversy	443	(7)
Postscript	450	(1)
Conclusion	450	(1)
For Discussion	451	(1)
When Statistics Count: Revising the Lead Standard for Gasoline	452	(25)
Background: The EPA Lead Standards	453	(2)
Origins of the 1985 Standards	455	(1)
Pulling the Pieces Together	456	(4)
A Closer Look at the Link between Gasoline Lead and Blood Lead	460	(12)
Finalizing the Rule	472	(3)
Conclusion	475	(1)
For Discussion	476	(1)
PART VI: CONCLUSION
Doing Well and Doing Good	477	(2)
Name Index	479	(10)
Subject Index	489

Excerpts

When we began our study of policy analysis at the Graduate School of Public Policy (now the Goldman School), University of California at Berkeley, the field was so new that we seemed always to be explaining to people just what it was that we were studying. It is no wonder, then, that there were no textbooks to provide us with the basics of policy analysis. More than a dozen years later we found ourselves teaching courses on policy analysis but still without what we considered to be a fully adequate text for an introductory course at the graduate level. Our experiences as students, practitioners, and teachers convinced us that an introductory text should have at least three major features. First, it should provide a strong conceptual foundation of the rationales for, and the limitations to, public policy. Second, it should give practical advice about how todopolicy analysis. Third, it should demonstrate the application of advanced analytical techniques rather than discuss them abstractly. We wrote this text to have these features.We organize the text into six parts. In Part I we begin with an example of a policy analysis and then emphasize that policy analysis, as a professional activity, is client-oriented, and we raise the ethical issues that flow from this orientation. In Part II we provide a comprehensive treatment of rationales for public policy (market failures, broadly defined) and we set out the limitations to effective public policy (government failures). In Part III we set out the conceptual foundations for solving public policy problems, including a catalogue of generic policy solutions that can provide starting points for crafting specific policy alternatives. We also offer advice on designing policies that will have good prospects for adoption and successful implementation and how to think about the choice between government production and contracting out. In Part IV we give practical advice about doing policy analysis: structuring problems and solutions, gathering information, and measuring costs and benefits. In Part V we present several extended examples illustrating how analysts have approached policy problems and the differences that their efforts have made. Part VI briefly concludes with advice about doing well and doing good.We aim our level of presentation at students who have had, or are concur rently taking, an introductory course in economics. Nevertheless, students 14thout a background in economics should find all of our general arguments and most of our technical points accessible. With a bit of assistance from an instructor, they should be able to understand the remaining technical points.We believe that this text has several potential uses. We envision its primary use as the basis of a one-semester introduction to policy analysis for students in graduate programs in public policy, public administration, and business. We believe that our emphasis on conceptual foundations also makes it attractive for courses in graduate programs in political science and economics. At the undergraduate level, we think our chapters on market failures, government failures, generic policies, and cost-benefit analysis are useful supplements, and perhaps even replacements, for the commonly used public finance texts that do not treat these topics as comprehensively.