Michael J. Camasso
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195179057
- eISBN:
- 9780199864546
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195179057.003.0005
- Subject:
- Social Work, Social Policy, Children and Families
This chapter focuses on the pressure from officials, government bureaucrats, policy experts, advocacy groups, and the media for results of the Family Cap impact study. It shows that in New Jersey, ...
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This chapter focuses on the pressure from officials, government bureaucrats, policy experts, advocacy groups, and the media for results of the Family Cap impact study. It shows that in New Jersey, within a year of the Family Development Program’s implementation, and before researchers began the official Section 1115 Waiver evaluation, pressure was mounting on the state’s Department of Human Services to produce an initial assessment of the impact of the Family Cap.Less
This chapter focuses on the pressure from officials, government bureaucrats, policy experts, advocacy groups, and the media for results of the Family Cap impact study. It shows that in New Jersey, within a year of the Family Development Program’s implementation, and before researchers began the official Section 1115 Waiver evaluation, pressure was mounting on the state’s Department of Human Services to produce an initial assessment of the impact of the Family Cap.
Jens Ludwig, Jeffrey R. Kling, and Sendhil Mullainathan
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780262019613
- eISBN:
- 9780262314633
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262019613.003.0004
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
Randomized controlled trials are increasingly used to evaluate policies, including in the area of crime policy. How can these experiments best inform policy? Greater use should be made of experiments ...
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Randomized controlled trials are increasingly used to evaluate policies, including in the area of crime policy. How can these experiments best inform policy? Greater use should be made of experiments that identify behavioral mechanisms that are central to clearly specified policy questions, designated “mechanism experiments.” These types of experiments can be of great policy value even if the intervention that is tested (or its setting) does not correspond exactly to any realistic policy option.Less
Randomized controlled trials are increasingly used to evaluate policies, including in the area of crime policy. How can these experiments best inform policy? Greater use should be made of experiments that identify behavioral mechanisms that are central to clearly specified policy questions, designated “mechanism experiments.” These types of experiments can be of great policy value even if the intervention that is tested (or its setting) does not correspond exactly to any realistic policy option.
Stuart Wilks-Heeg
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781447324157
- eISBN:
- 9781447324171
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447324157.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
The late 1960s witnessed the emergence of geographically-targeted urban policy initiatives designed to address what the then Home Secretary James Callaghan described as the “deadly quagmire of need ...
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The late 1960s witnessed the emergence of geographically-targeted urban policy initiatives designed to address what the then Home Secretary James Callaghan described as the “deadly quagmire of need and apathy" in some inner-city communities. This chapter considers how these urban policies have evolved since the late 1960s, with a particular focus on the experimental character of these initiatives and their changing interpretation ‘community’. It focuses particularly on the (re)turn to community in urban policy from the early 1990s onwards, when community involvement, and ultimately community leadership, came to be seen as the solution to previous policy failure. The chapter argues that community-led urban policies repeated the mistakes of past initiatives by misrepresenting the causes of neighbourhood decline. It also suggests that the effective abandonment of urban policy experiments since 2010 is arguably be the biggest regeneration experiment to date.Less
The late 1960s witnessed the emergence of geographically-targeted urban policy initiatives designed to address what the then Home Secretary James Callaghan described as the “deadly quagmire of need and apathy" in some inner-city communities. This chapter considers how these urban policies have evolved since the late 1960s, with a particular focus on the experimental character of these initiatives and their changing interpretation ‘community’. It focuses particularly on the (re)turn to community in urban policy from the early 1990s onwards, when community involvement, and ultimately community leadership, came to be seen as the solution to previous policy failure. The chapter argues that community-led urban policies repeated the mistakes of past initiatives by misrepresenting the causes of neighbourhood decline. It also suggests that the effective abandonment of urban policy experiments since 2010 is arguably be the biggest regeneration experiment to date.
Justin Longo and Kathleen McNutt
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781447334910
- eISBN:
- 9781447334934
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447334910.003.0018
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
Policy analysis relies on data collected at discrete intervals along the policy cycle, from problem identification through evaluation. Policy analytics, in contrast, represents the combination of ...
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Policy analysis relies on data collected at discrete intervals along the policy cycle, from problem identification through evaluation. Policy analytics, in contrast, represents the combination of new, ubiquitous, and continuous data sources—from Internet search and social media to mobile smartphones, Internet of Everything (IoE) devices, and electronic transaction cards—with new data analytics techniques for informing and directing policy choices. New technology platforms also offer the possibility of small-scale policy experiments that can be piloted with their effects precisely observed in real-time. This big data + analytics + real-time experiments approach offers a significant change to the traditional practice of policy analysis. This chapter describes the movement from policy analysis to policy analytics, discusses emergent examples and potential applications, and concludes with questions that can guide the appropriate adoption of policy analytics for supporting policymaking.Less
Policy analysis relies on data collected at discrete intervals along the policy cycle, from problem identification through evaluation. Policy analytics, in contrast, represents the combination of new, ubiquitous, and continuous data sources—from Internet search and social media to mobile smartphones, Internet of Everything (IoE) devices, and electronic transaction cards—with new data analytics techniques for informing and directing policy choices. New technology platforms also offer the possibility of small-scale policy experiments that can be piloted with their effects precisely observed in real-time. This big data + analytics + real-time experiments approach offers a significant change to the traditional practice of policy analysis. This chapter describes the movement from policy analysis to policy analytics, discusses emergent examples and potential applications, and concludes with questions that can guide the appropriate adoption of policy analytics for supporting policymaking.
Nicole M. Schmidt, Quynh C. Nguyen, and Theresa L. Osypuk
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- April 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190843496
- eISBN:
- 9780190843533
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190843496.003.0006
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
This chapter primarily discusses experiments and quasi-experiments (also known as natural experiments) as designs for examining the causal effect of neighborhood environments on health. The first ...
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This chapter primarily discusses experiments and quasi-experiments (also known as natural experiments) as designs for examining the causal effect of neighborhood environments on health. The first half of this chapter discusses causal inference, and experimental, quasi-experimental, and longitudinal study designs. These designs are important for causal inference, by providing a clear temporal ordering and the ability to take into account (potential) time lags between exposure to neighborhood environment characteristics and changes in health and health behavior. The second half of the chapter discusses examples in the literature of studies using experimental, quasi-experimental, and longitudinal designs to examine the relationships between neighborhood environments and health. We provide an in-depth empirical look at a large and well-known experiment examining how neighborhoods influence health: the Moving to Opportunity housing policy experiment.Less
This chapter primarily discusses experiments and quasi-experiments (also known as natural experiments) as designs for examining the causal effect of neighborhood environments on health. The first half of this chapter discusses causal inference, and experimental, quasi-experimental, and longitudinal study designs. These designs are important for causal inference, by providing a clear temporal ordering and the ability to take into account (potential) time lags between exposure to neighborhood environment characteristics and changes in health and health behavior. The second half of the chapter discusses examples in the literature of studies using experimental, quasi-experimental, and longitudinal designs to examine the relationships between neighborhood environments and health. We provide an in-depth empirical look at a large and well-known experiment examining how neighborhoods influence health: the Moving to Opportunity housing policy experiment.
John Toye
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198723349
- eISBN:
- 9780191789786
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198723349.003.0005
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
Keynes’s writings are often disregarded in the context of economic development, overlooking that Russia was a developing country in his lifetime. He wrote about the experimental economic techniques ...
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Keynes’s writings are often disregarded in the context of economic development, overlooking that Russia was a developing country in his lifetime. He wrote about the experimental economic techniques that the Soviet government employed. He visited Russia three times and wrote A Short View of Russia in which he explained and criticized Bolsheviks’ policy of export and import monopolies, an overvalued exchange rate, inflationary government finance, and the subsidization of industry. These were policies that many developing countries adopted after decolonization. Keynes’s conclusion was that they were inefficient and that ‘bourgeois economics was valid in a communist country’. Did Keynes change his mind in the 1930s? If anything, he grew more harshly critical of Soviet economic policies and carefully distinguished them from his own endorsement of moderate trade protection and government supplementary investment in times of depression.Less
Keynes’s writings are often disregarded in the context of economic development, overlooking that Russia was a developing country in his lifetime. He wrote about the experimental economic techniques that the Soviet government employed. He visited Russia three times and wrote A Short View of Russia in which he explained and criticized Bolsheviks’ policy of export and import monopolies, an overvalued exchange rate, inflationary government finance, and the subsidization of industry. These were policies that many developing countries adopted after decolonization. Keynes’s conclusion was that they were inefficient and that ‘bourgeois economics was valid in a communist country’. Did Keynes change his mind in the 1930s? If anything, he grew more harshly critical of Soviet economic policies and carefully distinguished them from his own endorsement of moderate trade protection and government supplementary investment in times of depression.