Policy analysis

Taxes, retirement, and financial policies are some of the most controversial areas of policy development.  There are a variety of opinions, data sources, and expert reports out there on each of these areas. Therefore, along with all proposed policy, it is important that we can evaluate each policy.  In this week's lesson, we discussed the three primary and five ancillary evaluative criteria that Kraft considers essential in analyzing policies.  So let's put this information into practice.

Let's take a look at the National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative think tank.  I want you to chose one of the articles from either the taxes tab: (http://www.ncpa.org/taxes/) or the retirement tab (http://www.ncpa.org/retirement)

(1) Summarize the key points made within the article.  

(2) Now, select at least three evaluative criteria 

(effectiveness, efficiency, equity, liberty, political feasibility, social acceptability, administrative feasibility, and technical feasibility) -this must be included in paper/from this week's lesson to analyze the points made in the article.  For example, did the author address the equity of the policy and if so, what did they say?  If they didn't address it, what do you think the author would have said about the missing evaluative criteria?

(3) Analyze the policy alternatives (eg, including a liberal think tank) for your selected policy topic/article.