Policy Memo Assignment - Instructions attached

Policy Memo Assignment

Objective: Write a policy memo that describes and analyzes a policy-relevant topic (see below).

Topic: COVID-19 Vaccine Requirements:

Various COVID-19 vaccines have been developed and distributed throughout the United States to prevent transmission. Despite multiple government efforts to promote, and even require, vaccination among eligible individuals, the vaccination rate in the U.S. was 61% as of October 1, 2021. Please review and analyze at least two current or proposed policy options to promote and/or require COVID vaccination at either the federal or state level. Be sure to describe the underlying market failures that have contributed to the current problem.

Guidance on writing a policy memo

• Be sure to follow the content and formatting guidelines provided below. • A policy memo is a short piece of writing that succinctly describes a policy problem and outlines possible solutions in order to provide information to a decision-maker. The following is from Kraft and Furlong, Chapter 4 (p. 115):

(More generally, you should review the readings of Kraft and Furlong, Chapters 4 and 5, and Bardach, Appendix B, to get an idea about the content and approach of policy analysis)

• In terms of the approach outlined by Kraft and Furlong in Figure 4-1, your memo should include all the ‘steps’ listed, except you do not need to explicitly ‘Develop Evaluative Criteria’. The last step outlined by Kraft and Furlong is ‘Draw Conclusions’, which includes identifying which policy option (if any) is most desirable. You are welcome, but not required, to make a final recommendation in this fashion. However, vigorously advocating for a particular policy option is not the central point of the paper. Instead, your main focus should be on the analysis – explicating the issue to provide all the analysis and facts that a policy maker would need to understand and act on the issue. • In terms of Kraft and Furlong Figure 4-2, the approach you take here should be a ‘professional’ approach. • Your criteria for assessing the virtues of any policy option should include: (1) efficiency – how well does a proposed policy do at maximizing social well-being, (2) efficacy – can the

Policy Memo Assignment

policy be expected to achieve the desired outcome, and (3) equity – who will gain or lose from a given policy and is this redistribution acceptable?

• Note that there are several approaches to writing this memo. You can evaluate one existing or one proposed policy approach to the problem, or you can compare the possible outcomes from two existing or proposed policy approaches to the problem. In the latter case, one of those approaches might be the status quo, which you might compare to a newly proposed policy. Or, you might compare two possible different policy approaches to one another. However, note that due to space limitations you probably do not want to get involved in evaluating more than two possible approaches. • You may want to do some preliminary research on each topic so that you have an idea of the basic issues involved prior to choosing which one to write your paper on.

Your policy brief should contain the following components:

1. Introduction – Provide a brief orientation to the reader about the policy(ies) under consideration and the analytic approach you plan to take 2. Problem Definition, Topic Summary -- • Describe the policy problem, its significance, and some basic history and/or background that will help the reader understand the problem. • Explain what kind of market failure or other rationale is the root cause of the problem and the rationale for policy intervention. (i.e., describe the economic theory underlying the policy proposal) 3. Policy Discussion -- Describe key features of existing policy(ies) and/or any proposed policy(ies) that could be expected to improve the current situation. If there is no relevant policy history on this particular topic, consider looking for similar kinds of issues for which there has been policy intervention. 4. Expected Outcomes – Describe at least one proposed policy that does currently or could address the problem you have described above. Describe the actual or expected outcomes of the actual or proposed policy (or policies). This should include a discussion of any unintended consequences, as well as of any distributional consequences. Provide references to relevant empirical evidence. 5. Summary – Describe how the policy under consideration will meet criteria for efficiency, efficacy and equity in solving the problem at hand.

Formatting and Other Guidelines

• Your finished memo should be 4-5 pages of text, double-spaced with a 12-point font and 1-inch margins. • The page count for text does not include any bibliography or appendices that you include at the end. • Charts and tables are not required, but their inclusion can sometimes greatly enhance your arguments. Any charts or tables that you want to reference should be placed in an appendix at the end of your memo. • In order to write your memo, you are expected to do some basic research on your chosen topic and related policy approaches. Each of these topics is a relatively new policy area in which current policy is relatively unformed. You may find it helpful to look at policy approaches in closely related areas.

Policy Memo Assignment

• You should seek out reliable research materials on your topic, drawing on a mix of academic or professional journal articles, resources from government agencies or think tanks and high quality news outlets (e.g. major national newspapers). Please be careful to use reliable resources only. • You should include formal bibliographic citations to references for ideas or facts that you cite in your analysis. Any standard reference/bibliographic format is acceptable; APA (American Psychological Association) format is fairly standard in the field. • Your policy memo will be held to professional standards. Make sure to check for spelling, grammar, and typos. More generally, you should make an effort for your writing to be clear and concise.