Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T16:06:20.139Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Relevance of Policy Analysis: Needs for Design, Implementation and Packaging

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2015

Jerry R. Skees*
Affiliation:
University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky

Abstract

This article challenges the traditional model of the economist as a humble technocrat who simply provides analysis given the preferences of policy decision-makers. Since decision-makers rarely reveal their preferences, it is important that the would-be policy research/analyst know the political economy and be willing to identify potential performance goals for society. Researchers who are willing to incur the transaction cost associated with becoming involved in useful policy research must learn to work within the imperfect policy process. Policy research that considers the importance of implementation and that acknowledges the institutions and the history will have the highest chance of being useful to policy-makers.

Type
Invited Papers and Discussions
Copyright
Copyright © Southern Agricultural Economics Association 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bartlett, Randall. Economic Foundations of Political Power. London, England: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1973.Google Scholar
Blaug, Mark, The Methodology of Economics or How Economists Explain. New York, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonnen, James T.Observations on the Changing Nature of National Agricultural Policy Decision Processes, 1946-76.” in Farmers. Bureaucrats, and Middlemen, edited by Peterson, Trudy Huscamp. Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1980.Google Scholar
Browne, William P., Skees, Jerry R., Swanson, Louis E., Thompson, Paul B., and Unnevehr, Laurian J.. Sacred Cows and Hot Potatoes: Agrarian Myths in Agricultural Policy. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Buchanan, James M. and Tollison, Robert D.. Editors of Theory of Public Choice: Political Applications of Economics. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1972.Google Scholar
Johnson, Glenn L., and Bonnen, James T., with Fienup, Darrell, Quance, C. Leroy, and Schaller, Neill, editors. Social Science Agricultural Agendas and Strategies. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Lindblom, Charles. The Policy Making Process, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1968.Google Scholar
Mitchell, William C.Interest Groups: Economic Perspectives and Contributions.” Journal of Theoretical Politics. 2(1990):85108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, Robert H.The Economics Profession and the Making of Public Policy.” J. Econ. Lit., XXV(1987):4991.Google Scholar
Randall, Alan.Information, Power, and Academic Responsibility”, Amer. J. Agr. Econ.. 56 (1974): 227234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simon, Herbert A.Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organization. New York, New York: Macmillan Co., 1947.Google Scholar
Skees, Jerry R.The New Political Economy of Agricultural and Rural Research Implications for Institutional Change: Responses from Agricultural Economists.Amer. J. Agr. Econ.. 74 (1992): 12411248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skees, Jerry R.The Political Economy of A Crop Insurance Experiment.Res, A.E.. 9314. Myer, W.I.. Lecture, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. October 17, 1993.Google Scholar
Skees, Jerry R. and Swanson, Louis E.. “The Politics of Rural Data.” in Rural Data. People. & Policy: Information Systems for the 21st Century, edited by Christenson, James A., Maurer, Richard C., and Strang, Nancy L.. Boulder Colorado: Westview Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Toffler, Alvin. Powershift: Knowledge. Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century. New York, New York: Bantam Books, 1990.Google Scholar