Policy Analysis: Concepts and Practice

✍ Scribed by David L. Weimer, Aidan R. Vining

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 867
• Edition: 6
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Often described as a public policy “bible,” Weimer and Vining remains the essential primer it ever was. Now in its sixth edition, Policy Analysis provides a strong conceptual foundation of the rationales for and the limitations to public policy. It offers practical advice about how to do policy analysis, but goes a bit deeper to demonstrate the application of advanced analytical techniques through the use of case studies. Updates to this edition include:

A chapter dedicated to distinguishing between policy analysis, policy research, stakeholder analysis, and research about the policy process.

An extensively updated chapter on policy problems as market and governmental failure that explores the popularity of Uber and its consequences.

The presentation of a property rights perspective in the chapter on government supply to help show the goal tensions that arise from mixed ownership.

An entirely new chapter on performing analysis from the perspective of a public agency and a particular program within the agency’s portfolio: public agency strategic analysis (PASA).

A substantially rewritten chapter on cost–benefit analysis, to better prepare students to become producers and consumers of the types of cost–benefit analyses they will encounter in regulatory analysis and social policy careers.

A new introductory case with a debriefing that provides advice to help students immediately begin work on their own projects.

Policy Analysis: Concepts and Practices remains a comprehensive, serious, and rich introduction to policy analysis for students in public policy, public administration, and business programs.

✦ Table of Contents

Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Detailed Table of Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Boxes
Preface
Acknowledgments
PART I Introduction to Public Policy Analysis
1 Preview
Reducing the U.S. Kidney Transplant Shortage
Debriefing
Write to Your Client
Understand the Policy Problem
Be Explicit About Values
Specify Concrete Policy Alternatives
Predict and Value Impacts
Consider the Trade-Offs
Make a Recommendation
For Discussion
2 What Is Policy Analysis?
Policy Analysis in Perspective
Policy Analysis as a Profession
A Closer Look at Analytical Functions
Basic Preparation for Policy Analysis
For Discussion
3 Toward Professional Ethics
Analytical Roles
Value Conflicts
Ethical Code or Ethos?
For Discussion
PART II Conceptual Foundations for Problem Analysis
4 Efficiency and the Idealized Competitive Model
The Efficiency Benchmark: The Competitive Economy
Market Efficiency: The Meaning of Social Surplus
Caveats: Models and Reality
Conclusion
For Discussion
5 Rationales for Public Policy: Market Failures
Public Goods
Externalities
Natural Monopoly
Information Asymmetry
Conclusion
For Discussion
6 Rationales for Public Policy: Other Limitations of the Competitive Framework
Thin Markets: Few Sellers or Few Buyers
The Source and Acceptability of Preferences
The Problem of Uncertainty
Intertemporal Allocation: Are Markets Myopic?
Adjustment Costs
Macroeconomic Dynamics
Conclusion
For Discussion
7 Rationales for Public Policy: Distributional and Other Goals
Social Welfare beyond Pareto Efficiency
Substantive Values Other Than Efficiency
Some Cautions in Interpreting Distributional Consequences
Choosing Distributional Values
Instrumental Values
Conclusion
For Discussion
8 Limits to Public Intervention: Government Failures
Problems Inherent in Direct Democracy
Problems Inherent in Representative Government
Problems Inherent in Bureaucratic Supply
Problems Inherent in Decentralization
Conclusion
For Discussion
9 Policy Problems as Market and Government Failure: The Madison Taxicab Policy Analysis Example
Postscript: Technology Makes the 24/7 Rule Irrelevant
The Relationship between Market and Government Failures
Conclusion
For Discussion
PART III Conceptual Foundations for Solution Analysis
10 Correcting Market and Government Failures: Generic Policies
Freeing, Facilitating, and Simulating Markets
Using Subsidies and Taxes to Alter Incentives
Establishing Rules
Supplying Goods through Nonmarket Mechanisms
Providing Insurance and Cushions
Conclusion
For Discussion
11 Adoption
The Big Picture: Policy Process Frameworks and Theories
Practical Approach to Assessing and Influencing Political Feasibility
Political Strategies with Arenas
Conclusion
For Discussion
12 Implementation
Prerequisite: Sound Logic
Identifying the Links in the Chain: The Assembly Metaphor
Roles in the Implementation Process
Implementation Analysis Techniques
Policy Outcomes: Uncertainty and Error Correction
Understanding the Implications of Repeated Interaction
Conclusion
For Discussion
13 Government Provision: Drawing Organizational Boundaries
Provision or Production?
Production Costs, Bargaining Costs, and Opportunism Costs in Contracting
Predicting Bargaining and Opportunism Costs
More Autonomous Public Supply
Complex Public Provision
Public–Private Partnership Case
Assessing and Building Public Agency Capacity
Conclusion
For Discussion
PART IV Doing Policy Analysis
14 Gathering Information for Policy Analysis
Document Research
Field Research
Conclusion
For Discussion
15 Landing on Your Feet: Organizing Your Policy Analysis
Analyzing Yourself
The Client Orientation
Steps in Rationalist Policy Analysis
Problem Analysis
Solution Analysis
Communicating Analysis
Self-Analysis Once Again: Combining Linear and Nonlinear Approaches
Conclusion
For Discussion
16 Case Study: The Canadian Pacific Salmon Fishery
For Discussion
17 Cost–Benefit Analysis: Assessing Efficiency
Preview: CBA of a Juvenile Justice Program
Net Benefits and Potential Pareto Improvement
Step 1: Specify Current and Alternative Policies
Step 2: Specify Whose Costs and Benefits Count
Step 3: Catalogue Relevant Impacts
Step 4: Predict Impacts over Time Horizon of Policies
Step 5: Monetize All Impacts
Step 6: Discount Benefits and Costs to Obtain Present Values
Step 7: Compute the Present Value of Net Benefits
Step 8: Perform Sensitivity Analysis
Step 9: Recommend
Conclusion
For Discussion
18 Public Agency Strategic Analysis: Identifying Opportunities for Increasing Social Value
Clarifying Social (Public) Value
The External Forces on an Agency
Internal Analysis: The Value Creation Process
Feasible, Rather than Ideal, Alternatives
Conclusion
For Discussion
PART V Conclusion
19 Doing Well and Doing Good
Name Index
Subject Index