Product Description

This introduction to both the hows and whys of the practices of public policy provides reality-based practical advice about how to actually conduct policy analysis and demonstrates the application of advanced analytic techniques. Covers such topics as Efficiency and the Idealized Competitive Model; Rationales for Public Policy (Market Failures, Other Limitations of the Competitive Framework, and Distributional and Other Goals); Limits to Public Intervention: Government Failures; Correcting Market and Government Failures: Generic Policies; How to Confront Policy Problems; Goals/Alternatives Matrices: Some Examples from CBO Studies; Benefit-Cost Analysis; Thinking Strategically About Adoption and Implementation; Benefit- Cost Analysis in Bureaucratic Settings: The Strategic Petroleum Reserve; When Statistics Count: Revising the Lead Standard for Gasoline. For anyone involved in Policy Analysis, Public Policy, Public Finance, Cost-Benefit Analysis.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #385070 in Books
• Published on: 1998-10-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 486 pages

From the Publisher
An introduction to the practices of public policy -- and an examination of the conceptual foundation of their rationales.

From the Back Cover
This introduction to both the hows and whys of the practices of public policy provides reality-based practical advice about how to actually conduct policy analysis and demonstrates the application of advanced analytic techniques. Covers such topics as Efficiency and the Idealized Competitive Model; Rationales for Public Policy (Market Failures, Other Limitations of the Competitive Framework, and Distributional and Other Goals); Limits to Public Intervention: Government Failures; Correcting Market and Government Failures: Generic Policies; How to Confront Policy Problems; Goals/Alternatives Matrices: Some Examples from CBO Studies; Benefit-Cost Analysis; Thinking Strategically About Adoption and Implementation; Benefit- Cost Analysis in Bureaucratic Settings: The Strategic Petroleum Reserve; When Statistics Count: Revising the Lead Standard for Gasoline. For anyone involved in Policy Analysis, Public Policy, Public Finance, Cost-Benefit Analysis.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

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 to do policy 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.

Customer Reviews

essential book for anyone studying economics/public policy
I found this book by accident! And it saved my (academic) life, by giving me a clear, economics-grounded understanding of: -why markets fail -why governments fail too -what the alternatives are for correcting those failures (policy options) -how to do a cost/benefit analysis of the different policy options -how to structure a policy analysis -how to write it up and present it in a way that makes things happen.

Whether you work for an advocacy organization, a politician, a government agency, a corporation, or are simply interested in better understanding why governments intervene in the 'free market', this book will be a great help to you, too!

a well-organized introduction to policy studies
Weimer's "Policy Analysis -3rd edition" provides a well-organized, widely-covered, and easily-understandable introduction to policy analysis. Although we have to seek for other materials for an in-depth analysis of some topics, the book helps us start with Public Policy, Policy Analysis, and even economic policies. This is especially good for undergraduate level, since this provides how to study, investigate, and write policy paper.

One of the best texts in policy analysis
This is one of the very best textbooks in the study of policy analysis.

The first part of the book sets the context. It provides a neat case study of the Canadian salmon fishery to give an example of basic policy analysis. Following this are chapters on the nature of policy analysis and the professional ethics related to the endeavor.

One of the most important elements of this book is the next section--the economics of policy analysis. The text discusses the logic of economics, why government intervention through making policy can make economic sense under certain conditions, and the danger of "government failure" (when governmernt actions may work against good economic sense).

The following section focuses on the variety of policy options available to government to address problems. Some "solutions" are market-based; others include regulations and taxes. The volume goes on to explore techniques such as cost-benefit analysis. Two case studies of policy analysis round out the substantive chapters. The last chapter focuses on the responsibility of policy analysts to both "do well" and to "do good."

Not an easy read, but a book that provides the basic underpinnings for understanding policy analysis--and how to do policy analysis.