PUP 3002 Exam 1

What are the expected benefits of studying public policy?

Accountability, Efficiency gains, Equity policy delivery

Stakeholders

Those affected by policy problems

Policy Demands

The pressures placed upon elected leaders and policy makers that change the costs of their inaction

Credible Action

A promised or threatened action that the action's target believes will be carried out with high probability

Policy Entrepreneurs (kingdon)

Continually at work in the policy world attempting to define/redefine, shape/reshape, policy issues/problems

Dominant Policy Image

The image that most citizens think of when a phrase or policy is mentioned

Agenda Setting

The Process by which formal institutional centers of power will take up and potentially act on a policy solution

NGOs, Interest Groups, etc

External institutional actors that shape the agenda

Salience

The number of citizens that are likely to be affected by the policy in a significant way

Technical complexity

The level of knowledge needed to understand a policy area

Hearing room politics

high salience and low complexity

Operating room politics

Both high salience and complexity

Board Room politics

low salience & high complexity

Street-level politics

both low salience and low complexity

Whose ideas are considered for alternative formulation?

Policy advocated and private organizations subsidize with information

Electoral tactic

focuses on advocating for or against specific candidates

Legislative tactic (more common)

focuses on rhetoric and analysis to convince legislators of a group's position

Cost Benefit Analysis

Identify, list all benefits and costs in a common numeric, apply discount rate(how it diminishes over time), find the sum, and chose policy with highest gains

Policy Implementation

Any activity related to carrying out the duly passed policy.

How does the bureaucracy do policy implementation?

The bureaucracy engages in rule making (preliminary, then enforces the rules/regulations, provides services to clientele. Relies on non elected government officials

Policy evaluation

The systematic investigation of the effects of a policy on its intended social target prior to action. (How much of the original problem was solved)

No, Solutions can come first

Do policy problems always precede policy solutions?

Agenda Setting, Advocacy coalition( Groups of people that have certain set of ideas, and they work to keep something on/off the agenda), Policy setting

How do political interests place items on the policy agenda for consideration?

Policy Window

When an opportunity arises to merge policy solution with policy problems, sparking an actual policy change

A model of public policy is a simplified representation of the casual relationships that link any number of policy inputs with a policy output of interest.

What are the critical features of a theoretical model of public policy?

Causal Relationships

A relationship between an input variable(IND) and an output variable(dependent), where an outcome variable has changed due to an exposure to an input variable. The dependent variable is what is being explained and the independent is causing the change

Necessary

A condition that is necessary for something else to occur

Sufficient

A condition that in the presence of which something else will always occur

Necessary & Sufficient

A condition in whose absence the event will not occur and in whose presence the event must occur

Conditionally Causal

Exists when the effect of one variable X on Y is moderated by the effected of another variable Z

Deterministic Causality

IF x then always Y

Probabilistic Causality

If X then Y is likely

What Makes a good model?

Multivariate, Probabilistic, Parsimonious, generalizable, falsifiable, clear and logically constant, ideologically neutral

Multivariate

Has more than 1 variable/causes

Probabilistic

Factors are likely to impact our outputs of interests

Parsimonious

They seek to explain much with very few moving parts

Generalizable

They can apply to a larger population

Falsifiable

They can be tested by other people to further strengthen the conclusions

Clear and logically consistent

there will be a clear question and logically consistent.

Ideologically nuetral

no bias

Actors

everyone involved in the decision making process. Formal- those with established roles in the policy process & informal

Rules

The formal or informal agreements between actors regarding what actions are required, prohibited or permitted

Exogenous

Externally determined- the actors decisions have no impact on _______ factors (ex: probability of rain)

Endogenous

Internally determined- the actors decisions have an impact of _______ factors(ex: a weather controlling machine and the probability now its raining)

Rational choice

choices made by individuals to maximize their benefits and minimize their costs.

Ordinal Preferences

Preference orderings based on relative order. Rank preferences

Cardinal Preferences

Reveal the magnitude of relative preferences. Continuous valuation

Cooperation Dilemmas

People want to fire ride

Players Act Alone

Each actor wants to maximize his or high own benefits

Nash Equilibrium

a set of strategies such that no player can unilaterally improve their position given the other players actions. Essentially it reveals both actors best responsive given the other actions

Discount Factor

The degree to which people discount future benefits relative to current ones. Ranges from 0-1

Internalized norms

Beliefs or values that represent a form of psychological cost that the player feels when engaging in defection

Enforcement

Entails a third party that has the ability to offer a punishment for defecting behavior

Normative criteria

focus on what the state of the world should be

Positive criteria

focus on what the state of the world is

Pareto Efficiency

used to describe the relative levels of performance among alternative states of allocating goods among individuals

Pareto efficient

if we make it so at least one person so at least one person is better off and no one is made worse off then we have...

Kaldor-Hicks

if those who gain, gain more than the losses of those who lose, then it is efficient

Compensation Principle

The notion that winners can potentially compensate the losers

Supply

the amount of good that sellers are willing and able to produce

Changes of quantity supplied

the difference in quantity supplied when price changes

shift in supply curve

The change in price that a producer charges for a given good as response to to changes in the determinants of supply

Law of supply

as price increase quantity increases and vice-versa

Demand

the amount of a good a seller is willing and able to pay

Market Equilibrium

When demand=supply

Free Market

a market avoid of their party interference

Law of Demand

as price increases, quantity decreases, vice versa

Property Rights

the exclusive right to determine how a resource or property

Shortages

When price is fixed below equilibrium

Surplus

When price is fixed above equilibrium

Rivalrousness

whether a good can be used or consumed by one person while another person is using or consuming that good

Excludable

Whether its owner can restrict access to a good. Consumption can restricted

Monopolies

Exclusive possession or control of supply or trade in a commodity or service

Information Asymmetry

Suppliers have better info regarding quality and value than consumers

Transaction costs

costs associated with buying or selling a good

Pigouvian tax

Placing a per unit tax on a good to reflect the true costs of the good

Tax subsidy

Can be direct or indirect payment from the government to an individual or business with the purpose of altering the behavior of the individual

Market Distortions

A situation where some incident has caused the market price to be either higher or lower than the price that would have been obtained in the presence of a perfectly competitive market

Principle agent problems

governments may put a policy in place but carrying out the policy is usually contracted out to other actors

Common pool resources

natural or human-made goods that are renewable or replenish able but can exhausted from overuse.

Causal inference

casal relationships and the effects of various inputs on policy outputs and outcomes

Repetition Effect

any change in a subject's peformace due to repeating in the experimental condition

Internal Validity

The likelihood or level confidence that a causal inference drawn from an analysis reflects the "true" underlying causal relationship

External Validity

whether the findings from a study based upon a sample or an experiment can be extended or generalized to a larger population

Regression

an analysis can determine precise relationships between an input variable and output variable of interest

Conceptual Errors

occurs when individuals cannot agree that a proposed measure accurately assess the concept of interest

Empirical Errors

occurs when the instrument or device used to assess the underlying concept does so imperfectly

Random Error

describes the stochastic or random probability that some events are simply not perfectly predictable

Sampling error

We often rely on generating population parameters through a sample population

Population

The entire set individuals or cases with which an analyst in interested in examining or learning about.

Sample

A subset of the population

Statistics

Corresponding characteristics from a sample

Parameters

Characteristics of a population

Confidence Intervals

What is the degree to which we can expect the true population to differ from our point estimate

Type 1 Empirical Error

When one rejects a true null hypothesis

Type 2 Empirical Error

When one accepts a false null hypothesis

Scientific Uncertainty

The basis of scientific advancement is for scientists to be suspicious of other findings

Causal Skepticism

disbelief or distrust in a scientific claim that is based less upon rigorous evaluations of competing arguments and evidence

Causal Adherence

The adoption of or belief in a claim is based less upon rigorous evaluations of competing arguments and evidence and more upon political orientation or vested interest