As policy analysts have discovered the limitations of quantitative tools and economic analysis in confronting complex social and political issues, members of the profession have turned increasingly to the ideas and perspectives of the humanities. For the analyst who faces ethical questions,...

Policies directed at alleviating poverty rest on a set of assumptions regarding the demographic composition of the poor and the psychological dispositions of poor individuals. Evidence from a long-term study of a representative sample of low-income individuals shows that poverty is very...

Automobile safety standards adopted because of federal legislation have, according to many researchers, failed to save lives; safer cars, they infer, induce more dangerous driving. Results from the major study suggesting this conclusion are shown, however, to be quite sensitive to reasonable...

Analysts and researchers typically value knowledge for its contributions to the wisdom of policy action. Policymakers, however, typically value knowledge for its contributions to the exercise of political control. Our research on flows of knowledge among federal, state, and local education...

Do city governments generally behave in keeping with the assumptions underlying the incremental model when they allocate their resources among competing activities? That is to say, do they try to maintain everyone's historical “fair share” of the budget in order to minimize disputes among...

Japan's policies with respect to industry promotion consist of much more than picking winners and subsidizing them to ensure their success. The highly flexible and adaptive character of Japan's policies is illustrated by the country's efforts to enter the world aerospace industry, an industry in...

The process of cutback budgeting that occurs in an era of retrenchment differs significantly from budgeting in circumstances of revenue growth. Negotiating an agreement on a set of decrements is far more complicated than allocating increments: No one wants to be the first to propose a cut in...

One of the common problems of advanced industrialized countries is that of youth unemployment. While the policies which a nation implements are culture-bound, deeply rooted in its history and institutions, at times nations have successfully borrowed from one another. An investigation of...