Good Policy (good + policy)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Better Policy and Management Decisions through explicit Analysis of Uncertainty: New Approaches from Marine Conservation

CONSERVATION BIOLOGY, Issue 5 2000
Katherine Ralls Guest Editor
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


Explaining Australian Economic Success: Good Policy or Good Luck?

GOVERNANCE, Issue 2 2006
HERMAN SCHWARTZ
Australia and some European countries experienced economic "miracles" in the 1990s that reversed prior poor export, employment, and fiscal performance. The miracles might provide transferable lessons about economic governance if it were true that economic governance institutions are malleable, and that actors deliberately changed those institutions in ways that contributed to the miracles. This paper analyzes Australian policy responses to see whether remediation should be attributed to pluck (intentional, strategic remediation of dysfunctional institutions to make them conform with the external environment), luck (environmental change that makes formerly dysfunctional institutions suddenly functional), or just being stuck (endogenous or path-dependent change that brings institutions into conformity with the environment). These distinctions help establish whether actors can consciously engineer institutional change that is "off-path." While pluck appears to explain more than either stuck or luck in the Australian case, the analysis suggests that both off-path behavior and policy transfer are probably rare. [source]


Is Response to Intervention Good Policy for Specific Learning Disability?

LEARNING DISABILITIES RESEARCH & PRACTICE, Issue 4 2008
Kenneth A. Kavale
We discuss several policy implications of these new regulations by considering the original construct of SLD, the still "experimental" status and implementation of RTI, the closer alignment of RTI objectives with No Child Left Behind than former IDEA regulations, and the shift in focus from serving as a special education identification procedure to a general education instructional procedure. We conclude by proposing several recommendations for the appropriate inclusion of both RTI and psychometric evaluation within the continuum of SLD identification procedures. [source]


Honesty As Good Policy: Evaluating Maryland's Medicaid Managed Care Program

THE MILBANK QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2003
DEBBIE I. CHANG
Throughout the 1990s, the states launched many large-scale innovations in health care financing and delivery. The demands associated with designing, implementing, and managing such initiatives compete for those resources needed to evaluate the impact of the innovations. But without a good faith effort to launch a credible evaluation, innovative and controversial programs may not be able to be sustained. Striking a balance between advocating for change and honestly determining how well the desired changes have been achieved is a delicate and daunting task, and state policymakers often do not spend much time evaluating their efforts, even though this may be critical to the success of their programs. This article describes one state's assessment of a statewide, prepaid, Medicaid managed care program. We look at the evaluation as both an exercise in policy analysis and an indication of the response to various constituencies' concerns. Three of us either worked for the state or contracted with the state to help evaluate the program. [source]


Debt-Relief Effectiveness and Institution-Building

DEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 5 2009
Andrea F. Presbitero
This article provides new evidence on the effects of recent debt-relief programmes on different macroeconomic indicators in developing countries, focusing on the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs). The relationship between debt relief and institutional change is also investigated to assess whether donors are moving towards ex-post governance conditionality. Results show that debt relief is only weakly associated with subsequent improvements in economic performance but is correlated with increasing domestic debt which undermines the positive achievements in reducing external debt service. There is also evidence that donors are moving towards a more sensible allocation of debt forgiveness, rewarding countries which have better policies and institutions. [source]


Organizations advocating for youth: The local advantage

NEW DIRECTIONS FOR YOUTH DEVELOPMENT, Issue 117 2008
Sarah Deschenes
Youth occupy a unique place in our democratic society. They must primarily rely on others to speak on their behalf as decisions are made about the allocation of resources within and across various youth-serving institutions. Advocacy organizations comprise crucial representational assets for all youth, but America's poorest children and youth especially need an effective voice to speak for and about them. Yet advocates for youth in urban areas face tough challenges since urban voters typically have few positive connections to youth. This article draws on three years of research focused on three organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area that have successfully advocated for better policies for youth. The authors explore the strategies that these organizations have employed to overcome the challenges they face, with particular attention to the advantages that follow from advocating at the local rather than at the state or federal level. [source]


The Public/Private Partnership behind the Cash and Counseling Demonstration and Evaluation: Its Origins, Challenges, and Unresolved Issues

HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 1p2 2007
James R. Knickman
Objective. To discuss why and how the Cash and Counseling Demonstration came to be designed, implemented, and evaluated through a partnership between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). Principal Findings. This public/private partnership was created by two colleagues who were motivated by the need for funding to conduct a large-scale demonstration and evaluation, the prestige that both organizations brought to the project, the ability to draw on both organizations' experience and expertise, and the potential to maximize flexibility in the design and implementation of the demonstration. The partnership, which has lasted over a decade and has supported two generations of Cash and Counseling programs, overcame several challenges including getting approval for the project through their respective bureaucracies, managing the decision making process and the ongoing program across the two organizations, dealing with leadership and staff turnover, and reaching consensus on how to apportion credit for the success of the program. Several unresolved issues remain, including how the program gets operationalized within each state, how case management is addressed within the context of a consumer-directed model like Cash and Counseling, how quality is assured in this type of program, and how the Internal Revenue Service views and treats Cash and Counseling and other consumer-directed programs. Conclusion. This public/private partnership is an illustration of how public dollars can be leveraged effectively to examine a pressing policy issue and to produce information that can be translated into better policy and practice. The ASPE/RWJF collaboration made it possible to develop, test, and expand a policy-oriented demonstration project that has become a pivotal strategy in most states' efforts to build their home and community-based service systems. [source]


RAISING WAGES TO DETER ENTRY INTO UNIONIZED MARKETS,

THE JAPANESE ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 4 2009
SHINGO ISHIGURO
This paper investigates entry under a unionized oligopoly when entry and wage negotiations are sequential. We find the incumbent has incentives to raise the wage, which strengthens the bargaining position of the union relative to the entrant at subsequent negotiations and thus discourages entry. We show that entry is more likely to be deterred (accommodated) if the union is wage (employment) oriented and that raising unemployment compensation during recession not only reduces the burden of the unemployed but also induces new entry, creating more employment opportunities. However, during a business boom, reducing unemployment compensation is a better policy. [source]


Clarity of Responsibility and Corruption

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 1 2007
Margit Tavits
This article demonstrates that political institutions influence the level of corruption via clarity of responsibility. The key hypothesis is that when political institutions provide high clarity of responsibility, politicians face incentives to pursue good policies and reduce corruption. These incentives are induced by the electorates' rejection of incumbents who do not provide satisfactory outcomes. However, if lines of responsibility are not clear, the ability of voters to evaluate and punish politicians,as well as to create incentives for performance,declines. The findings confirm that countries with institutions that allow for greater clarity of responsibility have lower levels of corruption. [source]


The biofuels agenda shall not wait for miracles!

BIOFUELS, BIOPRODUCTS AND BIOREFINING, Issue 4 2009
Mariam Sticklen Consultant EditorArticle first published online: 7 JUL 200
Innovative science and good policy to make a global change in the history of humankind. © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Biofuels: good science must precede good policy

BIOFUELS, BIOPRODUCTS AND BIOREFINING, Issue 1 2009
Bruce E. Dale
ILUC analysis does not meet standards of scientific significance yet. © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd [source]