Cases in Public Policy Analysis

Combining the insights of an economist and a political scientist, this new textbook uses real-world cases to provide students with the institutional and political dimensions of policy problems as well as easily understood principles and methods for analyzing public policies. It clearly explains such basic tools as developing alternatives, benefit-cost analysis, and public pricing and shows how to apply them to specific cases. Updated from the first edition with more cases, this new edition contains up-to-date materials involving actual complex policy issues, such as cigarette smoking regulation, air pollution control, public transit financing, HIV/AIDS prevention programs, and prison overcrowding. Bridging the gap between methods and their application in real life, this book is useful as either a text or supplement in upper-division and graduate-level courses and is also an excellent sourcebook in applied policy training for government practitioners and consultants.