assignment 4
mmemo
1-PP-PolicyEvaluationandTermination.pptxPolicy Evaluation and Termination
Agenda
What is policy evaluation?
What is policy impact and its dimensions?
What are the types of policy evaluations?
What is systematic policy evaluation and how is it done?
Who are the actors in policy evaluation?
What are the challenges of policy evaluation?
What is cost-benefit analysis, steps and critics?
What is policy termination?
Nature of policy evaluation
Involves estimation, appraisal, or assessment of a policy, its content, implementation, goal attainment, and other effects.
Answers the questions to what extent a policy has accomplished its goals or whether it has had other effects, intended or unintended.
Seeks to identify factors that contributed to the success or failure of a policy
Leads to recycling of the policy process (problem definition, formulation, adoption, and so on) in order to continue, modify, strengthen, or terminate the policy.
Puts differently, information gained through evaluation feeds back into the ongoing policy process.
Occurs at any point in the policy process, not simply after some effort has been made to implement a policy.
used to determine prospectively—to estimate or predict—the likely effects, or the costs and benefits, of policy alternatives prior to their adoption.
Policy evaluation “looks backward” to what has happened whereas the other stages of the policy process look forward to attaining a goal
Focuses on policy impact
What is Policy impact and its dimensions
Policy impacts are an amalgam of outputs and outcomes
Policy outputs are the things actually done by agencies in pursuance of policy decisions and statements (readily counted, totaled, and statistically analyzed)
Policy outcomes (sometimes called “results”), in contrast, are the consequences for society, intended and unintended, that stem from deliberate governmental action or inaction.
The dimensions of policy impact include:
The public problem at which they are directed and the people involved including the intended and the unintended (unforeseen or unplanned) consequences
The situations or groups other than those at which they are directed (third-party effects, spillover effects, or externalities)
The consequences for future as well as current conditions
The material (tangible) and symbolic (intangible) outcomes
What are the types of Policy Evaluation?
Value based evaluation: depending upon values or criteria and fragmentary evidences which result in divergent conclusions on the merits of the same policy.
Process evaluation - on the operation or administration of a policy or program - What are its financial costs? Who receives benefits (payments or services) and in what amounts? Is there unnecessary overlap with or duplication of other programs? Are legislatively prescribed standards and procedures being followed? Is the program honestly administered?
Systematic evaluation - The most useful form of policy evaluation for policy-makers and administrators, and for policy critics who want a factual basis for their positions, is a systematic evaluation that tries to determine cause-and-effect relationships and rigorously measures the results of policy.
Systematic evaluation
employs social science methodology to measure the societal effects of policies or programs and the extent to which they are achieving their goals or objectives.
Involves:
specification of goals or objectives;
collection of information and data on program inputs, outputs, and consequences;
rigorous analysis, preferably through the use of quantitative or statistical techniques
The three systematic evaluation designs
The experimental design - Two comparable groups an experimental, or treatment, group and a control group (improved reading scores or lower incidences of a disease). the members selected randomly
The quasi-experiment – no random selection , the treatment group is compared with another group (a “comparison group”) that is similar in many respects.
The before-and-after study of a program compares the results of a program after a period of implementation with the conditions existing prior to its inception.
who are the actors in evaluation
Congressional Oversight ( the primary functions of Congress is the supervision and evaluation of the administration and execution of laws and policies)
Government Accountability Office (the arm of congress involved in evaluating agency programs)
Executive agencies (through their planning, programming, project, evaluation and monitoring offices)
University scholars and research centers;
Private research organizations (The RAND Corporation, Brookings Institution, the Urban Institute, and the American Enterprise Institute);
Pressure groups
Public-interest organizations ( Common Cause, the Audubon Society, and Ralph Nader)
The communications media (In their reporting of the news when public policies are involved, the media tend to focus on policies and government actions that go awry).
what are the challenges
Determining whether a policy or program is doing what it is supposed to do, or doing something else, is not an easy, straightforward task,
Uncertainty over Policy Goals (goals of a policy are unclear, diffuse, or diverse)
Difficulty in Determining Causality
Diffuse Policy Impacts (Policy actions may affect groups other than those at whom they are specifically directed)
Difficulties in Data Acquisition (a shortage of accurate and relevant statistical data and other information)
Official Resistance (officials fear of the possible political consequences of evaluation)
A Limited Time Perspective (short time period evaluation may not yield right evaluation)
Evaluation Lacks Influence (Once completed, an evaluation of a program may be ignored or attacked as inconclusive or unsound on various grounds)
Cost–benefit analysis
is a formal, quantitative evaluation technique that requires identifying the costs and benefits of either a proposed or actual policy and translating them into monetary values for purposes of comparison.
Specify the program or policy change
Decide whose costs benefits should be recognized (geographic scope or the groups)
Identity and categorize costs and benefits ( direct/indirect/ tangible/intangible)
Project costs and benefits over the life of the program
Monetize costs in the same unit.
Monetize benefits in the same unit.
Discount costs and benefits to obtain present values (use social discount rate)
Compute net present values (subtracting costs from benefits)
Perform sensitivity analysis (check the accuracy of your estimates and assumptions by altering the social discount rate)
Make a recommendation.
Critics on cost-benefit analysis
Good data on the costs and benefits of a policy are frequently difficult to come by (calculate the value of the health benefits of cleaner air)
No easy task to identify the appropriate discount rate ( the interest rate, the rate of inflation, or the opportunity costs of capital—that is, the rate of return that money would earn if devoted to private investment rather than public purposes)
Cost–benefit analysis gives little attention is accorded alternative or competing values—equity, human dignity, personal freedom, and equality, to name some.
the need to place a value on a human life. Some take the position that life is priceless and that attempting to place a dollar value on life reduces it to just another commodity.
Problems such as those sketched here have not prevented cost–benefit analysis from being used as a tool in governmental decision-making for several decades.
Policy Termination
The evaluation and appraisal of a policy produces a variety of responses – adjustments, minor or major changes, modifications, including termination.
Some of the factors leading to termination include - dissatisfaction with its costs and consequences; the development and expansion of political opposition; the urge to economize, clear policy failure.
is a severe action with unpleasant and negative connotations - undertone of admitting failure, people may suffer lost income and jobs, prices for services or products may increase
controversial and difficult, successful termination does occasionally happen
