policy 210 quiz one

public policy

a decision for the community

policies have no power unless they are voted on and executed by people chosen by the people - representative government

NEED TEETH

policy process

gather information -> analyze it -> set a policy

for-profit institutions

want to make a profit for their cowoners

revenues > costs

usually means they are in the private sector

nonprofit

they don't generate income - rely on donations, govt subsidies and funding

revenues < costs

501(c)(3) - tax code

government

exercises authority - aka can make people do things

markets

self-regulating economic machines

free rider

get to just hang out on the payment of others

tax evasion, etc.

real figures

adjusted for inflation

nominal - adjustment for price change

nominal figures

no inflation adjustment - just as they are

positive analysis

analysis on data without opinions

personal work and work opportunity reconciliation act

expanded welfare into the program it is today

moved into lifetime caps, changed the pay structure, etc.

New Deal

President Roosevelt's program for getting the United States out of the depression

added jobs, regulated banks and the stock market, created a minimum wage and retirement income

normative analysis

analysis on what "should" be done

government actors

anyone who acts on the part of the government

distributive policy

provide goods and services to the majority, funded by taxpayer money

redistributive policy

move wealth among the system (class-based)

tries to even out wealth or social status

regulatory policy

encourage some behaviors and discourage others

constituent policy

creation and running of government agencies

bureaucrats

an official in a federal government department

responsible for carrying out policies (sometimes they know more than the officials themselves)

statutory laws

a law enacted by a legislative body

constitutions

establish powers of government actors while allowing access of non-govt actors to limited policy decisions

confederate government

power in the states moved to a central big power

federalism

a combination of state and national governments

feds get explicitly defined powers, states get reserved (those not already covered)

when did big government start

after the Great Depression and World War 2, people wanted more federal government involvement

the New Deal really started it all

enumerated powers

held by the federal government

- regulate interstate commerce

- coin money

- declare war

- make laws: execute their powers

concurrent powers

shared by the states and federal governments

- collect taxes

- incur debt

- make and enforce laws

- establish courts and charter corporations

reserved powers

held by the states alone

- ratify constitutional amendments

- establish logistics of national electrions

- wield police power

- everything else not denied to states or given to the Feds

the Great Society

policies that changed social inequity

branches of government

legislative: make the laws

executive: enforce the laws (elastic language - executive orders)

judiciary: interpret the laws

powers of Congress

passes laws, appropriates $ spent, oversees all executive branches

judicial review

is the law constitutional?

established by Marbury v. Madison

judicial restraint

courts shouldn't push their views

opposite: judicial activism

ACA

Affordable Care Act

- expanded Medicaid

- people with pre-existing conditions should always have coverage

- stay on parents' insurance till 26

- insurers cannot limit coverage

- basic all plan requirements

- all Americans have to have insurance

- added subsidies

conference committees

made up of members both from the house and the senate who meet up to reconcile the legislation once it has passed through both houses successfully

filibuster

60 Senator majority usually needed to pass some legislation through the body

arab human development report

5% of the world lacks prosperity

very slow economic growth

poor public policy: freedom, women's empowerment, knowledge acquisition

welfare

originally intended to help out widows and single mothers with children (first expansion)

provides basic assistance to those populations (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) for the most dire of situations)

concerns about welfare queens, lifetime limits, wedlock

liberal democracy

the freedom to fulfill your dreams

heuristic

a proxy, a formula for how we see the world

opinion policy congruence

key points of the players making the policy matching up

congressional budget office

data on cost for Congress

market failures

goods and services are not efficiently allocated

reasons for market failures

public goods: tragedy of the commons

externalities: policies that impact a third party by accident

information asymmetry: one party has better information than the other

why do governments fail

- inability to defend welfare

- limits of democracy and voting

- inability to define outstanding public goods costs

- political constraints

- cultural constraints

- institutional constraints

- legal constraints

- knowledge constraints

- analytical constraints

- policy timing

the goal of public policy

1) defend people and property while keeping social order

2) support/make effective non-government actors

3) promote thriving

stages model of public policy

very similar to bardach's eightfold path

technocratic policy

the "Deep State", the big machine of government

caps

a classic policy tool that prevents people from having too much fun with things

zimbabwe

program to transfer land from white farmers to black farmers

was doing well but going slow, government interfered and it became a mess - land was seized, the country went into a famine

implied powers

powers that congress has that are not stated explicitly in the constitution

models

simplified illustrations of how systems operate

ceteris paribus

all other things being equal

the assumption in most social science research

utility

loosely equals well being

opportunity cost

what you give up to get something else

power of incentives

explain human behavior

if you change incentives you can change behavior

rational individuals won't do anything to make themselves worse off

policies that aren't rational can have unintended consequences

human capital

we think about our investments the same way that firms do

three basic policy questions

who is affected

how are they affected

what is their likely response

moral hazard

individuals/firms are protected so they act with less caution and make an unfortunate outcome more likely

information asymmetry

situation in which one party is more informed than another because of the possession of private information

principal agent problems

conflicts that arise when tasks are delegated by one group of people (principals) to another group of people (agents)

adverse selection

individuals use private information to put themselves in or out of a market transaction

signaling

when firms/individuals undertake options with no direct value

investing in fancy furniture in a law firm, for example

certification

a third party attests to the quality of the good or service

branding

when firms build an identity for their products

screening

one party investigates the other before entering into a transaction

behavioral econ

we are rational?

- revenge

- assessing risk

- planning and saving for retirement wrong

what governments do

taxes, regulation, subsidies and grants, provides services, agency budgets, information, modify structure of private rights, economic framework notification, education and consultation, financing and contracting, bureaucratic and political reforms