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Social experimentation randomly assigns individuals or groups to coverage by the policy of interest or a control group and then the groups are compared in terms of outcome. Greenberg (economics, U. of Maryland), Linksz (mathematics, science, and engineering, Community College of Baltimore County), and Mandell (policy sciences, U. of Maryland) seek to assess whether the substantial investment in social experimentation in the United States has resulted in significant public policy changes. After explaining the general concepts behind social experimentation, they analyze five case studies and determine that they are not of decisive importance in state policy making, but they often serve useful purposes of policy formation. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).
Knowledge grows as ideas are tested against each other. Agreement is not resolved simply by naming concepts but in the dialectical process of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. There are many echoes of these debates in The Evidence Book. The contributors make claims for both practitioner wisdom and the voice of experience. Against this is posed the authority of experimental science and the randomized controlled trial.The contributors are concerned, in their own ways, with collecting, ranking, and analyzing evidence and using this to deliver evaluations. As an expert group, they are aware that the concept of evidence has been increasingly important in the last decade. As with other concepts, ...
The study of public policy and the methods of policy analysis are among the most rapidly developing areas in the social sciences. Policy analysis has emerged to provide a better understanding of the policymaking process and to supply decision makers with reliable policy-relevant knowledge about pressing economic and social problems. Presenting a broad, comprehensive perspective, the Handbook of Public Policy Analysis: Theory, Politics, and Methods covers the historical development of policy analysis, its role in the policy process, and empirical methods. The handbook considers the theory generated by these methods and the normative and ethical issues surrounding their practice. Written by le...
Once primarily used in medical clinical trials, random assignment experimentation is now accepted among social scientists across a broad range of disciplines. The technique has been used in social experiments to evaluate a variety of programs, from microfinance and welfare reform to housing vouchers and teaching methods. How did randomized experiments move beyond medicine and into the social sciences, and can they be used effectively to evaluate complex social problems? Fighting for Reliable Evidence provides an absorbing historical account of the characters and controversies that have propelled the wider use of random assignment in social policy research over the past forty years. Drawing f...
The resilience of the Communist party-state, in combination with a rapidly expanding economy, represents a significant deviant case for the debate about models of development. This book focuses on the manner in which China's governmental system can be developed, formulated, implemented, adjusted, and revised. Policy-making is seen as an open ended process with an uncertain outcome, driven by conflicting interests, recurrent interactions, and continuous feedback, rather than determined by history, regime type, or institutions. Key to this are the capacity to deal with both existing and emerging challenges, correction mechanisms when conflicts arise, and adaptive capabilities in a changing economic or international context.
The story of how economic reasoning came to dominate Washington between the 1960s and 1980s—and why it continues to constrain progressive ambitions today For decades, Democratic politicians have frustrated progressives by tinkering around the margins of policy while shying away from truly ambitious change. What happened to bold political vision on the left, and what shrunk the very horizons of possibility? In Thinking like an Economist, Elizabeth Popp Berman tells the story of how a distinctive way of thinking—an “economic style of reasoning”—became dominant in Washington between the 1960s and the 1980s and how it continues to dramatically narrow debates over public policy today. I...
Urban and Regional Policy and Its Effects, the third in a series, sets out to inform policymakers, practitioners, and scholars about the effectiveness of select policy approaches, reforms, and experiments in addressing key social and economic problems facing cities, suburbs, and metropolitan areas. The chapters analyze responses to five key policy challenges that most metropolitan areas and local communities face: • Creating quality neighborhoods for families • Governing effectively • Building human capital • Growing the middle class • Enlarging a competitive economy through industry-based strategies • Managing the spatial pattern of metropolitan growth and development Each chapter discusses a specific topic under one of these challenges. The authors present the essence of what is known, as well as its likely applications, and identify the knowledge gaps that need to be filled for the successful formulation and implementation of urban and regional policy.
For graduate students in the social and health sciences, featuring essential concepts and equations most often needed in scholarly publications. Uses excerpts from the scholarly literature in these fields to introduce new concepts. Uses publicly-available data that are regularly used in social and health science publications to introduce Stata code and illustrate concepts and interpretation. Thoroughly integrates the teaching of statistical theory with teaching data processing and analysis. Offers guidance about planning projects and organizing code for reproducibility Shows how to recognize critiques of the constructions, terminology, and interpretations of statistics. New edition focuses on Stata, with code integrated into the chapters (rather than appendices, as in the first edition) includes Stata’s factor variables and margins commands and Long and Freese’s (2014) spost13 commands, to simplify programming and facilitate interpretation.
The U.S. Constitution calls on the government to "promote the general welfare." In this provocative and innovative book, a distinguished roster of political scientists and economists evaluates its ability to carry out this task. The first section of the book analyzes government performance in the areas of health, transportation, housing, and education, suggesting why suboptimal policies often prevail. The second set of chapters examines two novel and sometimes controversial tools that can be used to improve policy design: information markets and laboratory experiments. Finally, the third part of the book asks how three key institutions—Congress, the party system, and federalism—affect go...
First Published in 2007. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an Informa company.