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How should policy analysts assess 'benefit validity' when behavioral anomalies appear relevant? David L. Weimer provides thoughtful answers through practical guidelines. Behavioral economists have identified a number of situations in which people appear not to behave according to the neoclassical assumptions underpinning welfare economics and its application to the assessment of the efficiency of proposed public policies through cost-benefit analysis. This book introduces the concept of benefit validity as a criterion for estimating benefits from observed or stated preference studies, and provides practical guidelines to help analysts accommodate behavioral findings. It considers benefit validity in four areas: violations of expected utility theory, unexpectedly large differences between willingness to pay and willingness to accept, non-exponential discounting, and harmful addiction. In addition to its immediate value to practicing policy analysts, it helps behavioral economists identify issues where their research programs can make practical contributions to better policy analysis

ABSTRACTAt each stage of program implementation – strategic planning, systems design, development of the management control infrastructure, and project execution – different types of expertise are most critical to success. The civil service system, which is oriented toward the hiring of permanent employees, and personnel ceilings, which are often arbitrarily set in the budgeting process, interact to impede the transition from one implementation stage to the next. Cost overruns and long-run schedule slippage may result from attempts to expedite programs by beginning implementation stages in parallel, particularly if compensatory resources are not provided. These problems are illustrated with the history of the implementation of the strategic petroleum reserve program, a key element of US policy for reducing vulnerability to disruptions of the world oil market.

Cover -- 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

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.

"With budgets squeezed at every level of government, cost-benefit analysis (CBA) holds outstanding potential for assessing the efficiency of many programs. In this first book to address the application of CBA to social policy, experts examine ten of the most important policy domains: early childhood development, elementary and secondary schools, health care for the disadvantaged, mental illness, substance abuse and addiction, juvenile crime, prisoner reentry programs, housing assistance, work-incentive programs for the unemployed and employers, and welfare-to-work interventions. Each contributor discusses the applicability of CBA to actual programs, describing both proven and promising examples. The editors provide an introduction to cost-benefit analysis, assess the programs described, and propose a research agenda for promoting its more widespread application in social policy. Investing in the Disadvantaged considers how to face America's most urgent social needs with shrinking resources, showing how CBA can be used to inform policy choices that produce social value"--Provided by publisher