Evidence for Policy and Decision-Making A Practical Guide

by Argyrous, George

• ISBN13: 9780868409030
• ISBN10: 0868409030
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-04-01
• Publisher: University of New South Wales Press

Summary

With a focus on public-sector policy and decision making, this textbook, designed for masters-level courses in public administration, details the keystones of well-grounded research and information to support proposals. This is a comprehensive manual for people working in policy areas, and is useful for practitioners with little or no experience in research and analysis but who require skills in managing, assessing, and critically evaluating evidence-use in the public sector.

Author Biography

George Argyrous is senior lecturer in the school of social sciences and international studies at the University of New South Wales in Australia. He has worked as a consultant on research and analysis for many public- and private-sector agencies, such as the Australian Communications and Media Authority and Optus, and provided training courses to various agencies such the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission. He is the author of the international edition of Statistics for Research.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	p. vii
Foreword	p. viii
Past, present, and possible futures for evidence-based policy	p. 1
Frameworks for using evidence
Evaluation principles and practice	p. 27
A practical guide to cost-benefit analysis	p. 45
Multi-criteria analysis	p. 72
Economic modelling and forecasting	p. 94
Scenario analysis for strategic thinking	p. 116
Gathering and analysing evidence
Using consultants to gather evidence	p. 139
Sources and uses of secondary data	p. 162
A user's guide to sample surveys: Australian Bureau of Statistics	p. 175
Qualitative research methods	p. 218
Basic statistical methods for policy and decision-making	p. 240
Measuring the relationship between variables	p. 267
References	p. 284
Index	p. 301
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