Solving complex policy issues requires an analyst to balance constituents’ needs with the political and economic realities of governance. In Gupta’s foundational text, each concept—whether it’s research design, forecasting, or cost-benefit analysis—is illustrated with recent cases such as the 2008 banking crisis and a GAO report on poverty, allowing students to master a skill and understand its real world application. Expanded coverage of the issues of measurement that arise in economic analyses helps to emphasize the subjective considerations within the decision-making process. New chapters include coverage of the social goals of public policy and how to reconcile divergent views of analysts and policymakers. Students benefit from tables, figures, key terms, and exercises, and instructor’s resources include these graphics in electronic format and a solutions manual.

ISBN: 978-1-60426-570-5

Format: Print Paperback

Retail Price: $103.00

Price to Bookstores: $82.40

Expanded coverage of the issues of measurement that arise in economic analyses helps to emphasize the subjective considerations within the decision-making process. New chapters include coverage of the social goals of public policy and how to reconcile divergent views of analysts and policymakers. Students benefit from tables, figures, key terms, and exercises, and instructor’s resources include these graphics in electronic format and a solutions manual.

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1. Reason, Rationality, and Public Policy: The Puzzle of Human Behavior
Government in Our Lives
Politics and Rationality
The World of the “Rational Fool”
Government’s Goals and Their Impact on Public Policy

2. The Analysts: Their Role and Their Tools
The Prince and the Pundits: Analysts, Academics, and Advocates
The Use of Quantitative Techniques in Public Policy Analysis
Structure above a Swamp: Public Policy Analysis and Professional Ethics

3. Government and the Market
The Fundamental Contributions of Economic Analyses
Market Failure: Why Government Interferes in a Free Market
Government Failure
Limiting Government Intervention: Joint Partnership in a Mixed Economy

4. The Policy Process
Agenda Setting
Policy Formulation
Policy Adoption
Policy Implementation
Policy Evaluation
Policy Change
Policy Termination

5. Critical Thinking and Research Design
Five Steps of Objective Analysis
Setting Goals
Choosing a Method of Analysis
Choosing the Right Model
Forecasting Outcomes and Unintended Consequences
Designing Policy Research
Challenges to Critical Thinking: Biases in Reasoning
A Few Parting Suggestions

6. Basic Statistics
Numbers as Storytellers
Methods of Descriptive Statistics

7. Probability and Hypothesis Testing
Objective Probability
Subjective Probability

8. Sources of Data
What Are We Measuring?
Primary Data: Conducting a Survey
Quantification of Survey Data
Reporting Survey Results
Conducting Focus Groups
Secondary Data

9. Making Sense of Numbers
A Picture’s Worth: The Graphical Methods of Analysis
To Tell the Truth and Nothing but the Truth
Those Not-so-Innocent Numbers

10. Projection Techniques: When History Is Inadequate
Projection versus Causal Prediction
Inadequacy of History
Judgmental Methods of Projection

11. Projection Techniques: Analysis of Historical Data
The Components of a Data Series
The Patterns of Time Trends
Adjustment Methods
Smoothing Out the Fluctuations

12. Projection Techniques: The Method of Least Squares
The Logic of the Least Squares Method
Linear Time Trend: Simple Regression Model
Trend Changes: Building Multiple Regression Models
Gradual Changes in Trend: Estimation of Nonlinear Trends
Forecasting and Its Problems
Explaining the Present with the Past: Lagged Dependent Variables

13. The Elements of Strategic Thinking: Decision Tree and Game Theory
Getting a Grip on Uncertainty
Decision Making and Expected Payoff
The Decision Tree
Two Active Players: Game Theory
Strategies to Overcome the Prisoner’s Dilemma
Other Strategies: Trust and Bargaining

14. Choosing the Best Alternative: Benefit-Cost Analysis
Social versus Private Cost-Benefit Analysis
Defining Goals
Identifying Alternatives
Listing the Costs and Benefits of the Alternatives
Estimation and Valuation of Benefits and Costs
Introduction of Time: Present Value Analysis
Choosing the Best Alternative

15. So, You Want to Be An Analyst? Some Practical Suggestions
Before You Start
Begin Your Analysis
Tell a Good Story: Effective Presentation
Whose Ball Is It Anyway? Zen and the Art of Public Policy Analysis

“The author has integrated public policy, policy analysis, and methods into an interesting, well-written, and dynamic book.”

- Jeffrey Greene, University of Montana

“This is not ‘just another methods text.’ Gupta presents a coherent, accessible, yet thorough discussion of the major tools of policy analysis. The quantitative focus is tempered with an acknowledgment of the role of politics and other realities in public policy making.”

- Michelle Piskulich, Oakland University

“Gupta has written a comprehensive, competent, and readable text for policy analysis students. Quantitative methods are explained in a clear fashion for those interested in application rather than statistical properties. Examples provide the essential connection between techniques and their applications.”

- Edward Miller, University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point

"I’m just a big fan of Analyzing Public Policy: Concepts, tools, & Techniques. I’ve never seen a public policy textbook that is more thoughtful, considerate, and easy to read and understand for students. I’m using your book to teach my public policy analysis course for my MPA students."

- Myung H. Jin, Virginia Commonwealth University

Dipak Gupta is Fred J. Hansen Professor of Peace Studies, the Distinguished Professor in Political Science, and is the director of a multidisciplinary undergraduate program, International Security & Conflict Resolution (ISCOR) at San Diego State University. The author of eight books and over one hundred other publications, he specializes in ethnic conflict, terrorism, and public policy.

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