Rachel Meltzer - Policy Analysis as Problem Solving: A Flexible and Evidence-Based Framework

Drawing extensively from real-life cases, Policy Analysis as Problem Solving helps students develop the analytic skills necessary to advise government officials and nonprofit executives on a wide range of policy issues. Unlike other texts, Policy Analysis as Problem Solving employs a pragmatic, heterodox approach to the field. Whereas most texts on policy analysis are anchored in microeconomics, emphasizing economic efficiency, this book takes a broader view, using realistic examples to illustrate the full scope of policy analysis. The book provides succinct but thorough discussions of the key elements of the policy-analytic process, including problem definition, objectives and criteria, development of alternative policy options, and analysis of these alternatives. The texts practical approach and extensive downloadable resourceswhich include interviews, case studies, and further readingswill be of enormous benefit to both students and instructors of policy analysis.

Rachel Meltzer is Associate Professor of Urban Policy and Chair of the Public and Urban Policy masters degree program at the New School. She regularly teaches Policy Analysis, advises student teams in the Urban Policy Lab, and runs a doctoral seminar on theories of the policy-making process. Her research is broadly concerned with urban economies and how market and policy forces can shape disparate outcomes for neighborhoods. She focuses on issues related to housing, land use, economic development, and local public finance.

Alex Schwartz is Professor of Urban Policy at the New School, where he has taught Policy Analysis since 1993. He directs the New Schools Urban Policy Lab, in which teams of graduate students advise government agencies and nonprofit organizations on a wide array of policy and management issues. His research focuses primarily on housing and community development. He is the author of Housing Policy in the United States (3rd edition) (Routledge, 2014) and is the Managing Editor for North America for the international journal Housing Studies.

Rachel Meltzer and

Alex Schwartz

First published 2019
by Routledge
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2019 Taylor & Francis

The right of Rachel Meltzer and Alex Schwartz to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Schwartz, Alex F., 1957 author. | Meltzer, Rachel, author.

Title: Policy analysis as problem solving : a flexible and evidence-based framework / Alex Schwartz, Rachel Meltzer.

Description: 1 Edition. | New York : Taylor and Francis, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2018036094 (print) | LCCN 2018046126 (ebook) | ISBN 9781315209678 (Master Ebook) | ISBN 9781351807364 (Web pdf) | ISBN 9781351807357 (ePub) | ISBN 9781351807340 (Mobipocket) | ISBN 9781138630161 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138630178 (pbk.)

Subjects: LCSH: Policy sciences. | Problem solving.

Classification: LCC H97 (ebook) | LCC H97 .S3838 2019 (print) | DDC 320.6dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018036094

ISBN: 978-1-138-63016-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-63017-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-20967-8 (ebk)

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Visit the eResources: www.routledge.com/9781138630178

We thank all who have provided valuable feedback and insight on drafts of this book. In particular, we are grateful to the reviewers who offered detailed and thoughtful suggestions that undoubtedly improved the final manuscript. We are especially indebted to Vicki Turetsky for her wealth of knowledge on child support policies and her time and dedication in talking with us and reviewing earlier versions of the book. We thank Michael Shank, Samantha Cocco-Klein, Nicole Lau, and Alix Scherer for excellent research assistance. We are grateful to the NYC Mayors Office of Criminal Justice, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation and NYCs Department of Youth and Community Development for allowing us to use the materials from their Urban Policy Lab projects to be included as online resources for this book. We also thank the New School students who worked on these projects: Angela Butel Monae Evans, Eben Fenton, Nathaniel Haynesworth, Chaquenya Johnson, Cathy McGath, Miranda Nelson, Xiomara Pedraza, Evan Pelegrino, Alix Scherer, Michael Shank, Keri Springett, Amber Thomas, and Hugo Fausto Torres-Fetsco. We also thank Eve Strillacci and Samantha Barbaro of Routledge for their guidance and support.

Finally, this book would not have been possible without the several hundred students at the New School whom we had the pleasure to teach over the years in our Policy Analysis classes. They brought the material to life and helped to shape the analytical approach we present in the book.

Policy analysis is problem solving. It entails the systematic comparison of alternative options to address a policy problem. In comparing policy options, analysts use evidence and logic to assess, among other things, the options effectiveness in addressing the problem, their fairness, their costs, and their feasibility. Usually this analysis is done on behalf of clients, in government or the private and nonprofit sectors. In other words, policy analysis can be understood as evidence-based advice giving. Analysts provide guidance on policy options, indicating what results each option delivers, at what cost, and for whom.

Our goal in writing this book is to provide a straightforward yet flexible framework for conducting policy analysis. We provide tools for collecting and organizing disparate information on policy options and coming up with a cohesive course of action. We present the key elements in policy analysis and discuss the many ways by which they can be defined and implemented.