Foundations of Policy Analysis | Dr. Tyler Scott

Tuesday 3:30 to 6:15pm, Journalism Building 0508 | Office Hours: Monday 9am-12pm or by appointment | Course list-serv: [email protected]

This course provides broad exposure to the fundamental tools of marginal benefit and cost that supports welfare economics and policy analysis. While competitive markets are often efficient, there are many barriers to perfectly functioning markets that lead to the need for public policy. The course will also examine departures from canonical rational choice-based economic theory, often labelled as behavioral economics, and examine the implications of behavioral economic theories for modern policymaking.

Part of the programmatic goals for University of Georgia MPA students are that they understand the public policy process at the federal, state and local levels, including formulating, implementing and evaluating public policy. Students should develop the ability to interpret and persuasively communicate information regarding policy alternatives through written materials. Additionally, students should analyze policy alternatives using quantitative and qualitative tools to evaluate decisions and explain potential ramifications for diverse constituencies. Students should also learn to manage financial resources.

Secondly, the MPA program at UGA teaches students to utilize various methods and analytical tools to gather, analyze and interpret data to provide effective reasoning for decision-making and policy creation. Students should learn to effectively inform the public and other stakeholders of decisions and initiatives through the presentation of data and research finding. Furthermore, they should learn to produce policy papers involving the synthesis of information, evaluation, and analysis of critical questions or problems currently facing the field of public administration and policy.

Ultimately, this course seeks to lead students to develop these skills by applying the economic method of thought. Namely, this involves the assumption that rational agents respond predictably to incentives in order to allocate the scarce resources at their disposal as seems "best" to them, and how this method can be a widely useful tool for assessing public policy. Students in the course will practice the several skills outlined above via class discussion, out-of-class readings, and independent response papers.

Objectives

By the end of the course, students should understand:

• Fundamental economic ideas of scarcity, opportunity cost, and rationality
• Utility, revealed preference, and consumer surplus
• Production functions, marginal costs, supply functions and producer surplus
• Markets and how they work
• Market structures of perfect competition and monopoly
• Market failures and policy solutions: the cases of externalities, public goods and taxes
• Fundamentals of behavioral economic theories such as prospect theory and loss aversion, and practical application such as nudges

Guidelines

Prerequisites

There are no formal prerequisites for this course. I will assume that you have the capacity to read and interpret basic descriptive and inferential statistics (including reading/interpreting professional and academic studies on public policy).

Office Hours

My office is in Baldwin Hall, Room 415. Office hourse are Monday 9am to noon. While I am happy to hold weekly office hours, I fully acknowledge that other classes, work schedules, childcare constraints, etc., can make it difficult to get to Baldwin Hall within a set 90 minute window. For this reason I am happy to talk on the phone with you if that is more convenient. Or, if you need to coordinate a conversation with me and your group members, I am happy to meet with you virtually using Google Meetup, Skype, or similar technology. If you have a topic you would like to bounce around or you seek a detailed amount of feedback about something related to class, my only request is that you consider a medium other than email since writing out long emails (and replies) is often less efficient than a conversation.

Readings

The required textbook for this course is Hal R. Varian, Intermediate Microeconomics, 7th, 8th, or 9th Edition, (New York: W.W. Norton and Company). It is currently available used on Amazon for around $10-$15. All other readings will be made available through the course page.

Attendance

Class preparation and participation are very important for success in this course. Please arrive on time to class and attend each class. An absence is excused if you email me in advance of the class meeting and only in the case of illness, documented emergencies, and unavoidable conflict due to official university obligations. If you anticipate missing more than two classes I encourage you to drop this class and find another course that is more conducive to your schedule. Students who miss more than 2 classes without excuse will have their grade reduced by one full letter for each additional class period missed. Job interviews and job-related conflicts are not considered excused absences. Absences reported after missing class are considered unexcused unless valid documentation is provided. I expect students who are unable to attend class to obtain class materials and notes from classmates. Missing class is not an excuse for turning in late assignments.

Participation

As mentioned above, class preparation and participation are very important for success in this class. I ask that you attend class, arrive on time, complete assigned readings, and to contribute to class activities through active participation and involvement. Everyone benefits tremendously when there is active participation in class. Class discussions are not an empty exercise to gain points but an effort to teach each other how to engage in respectful and high-level discussions. Come to class with enthusiasm and ready to engage me, your classmates, the material, and your abilities! As you will see, I've designed participation credit for this course in a way that rewards multiple types of participation, not just speaking up in class.

To facilitate discussion in class and in small groups, for each class we will have discussion readings and/or podcasts. On at least five occasions during the semester, I ask that you post two discussion questions about the week's discussion reading. To receive participation credit for your question(s), you will need to post the question(s) pertaining to that week's material by noon (12:00 PM) on the day of class to the course's online discussion board. The question(s) you pose about the week's required readings need not be overly complicated. At the same time, please go beyond a question that could be answered with a 'yes/no' (e.g. 'Do you agree with Merten's point about...?' does not provide sufficient material to stimulate discussion). The point of generating questions like this is to stimulate your own critical thinking about the material and provide your classmates with insight into your takeaways related to the week's required readings. When thinking about your question, you are welcome to connect your question about the week's materials to material covered in previous weeks. The class discussion board also allows you to post a reply to someone's questions. That is, if you have a question that builds on or extends another classmate's question, you are welcome to offer that in place of your own stand-alone question.

Academic Integrity

As a University of Georgia student, you have agreed to abide by the University's academic honesty policy, 'A Culture of Honesty,' and the Student Honor Code. All academic work must meet the standards described in 'A Culture of Honesty' found at: https://ovpi.uga.edu/academic-honesty/academic-honesty-policy. Lack of knowledge of the academic honesty policy is not a reasonable explanation for a violation. Questions related to course assignments and the academic honesty policy should be directed to the instructor.

Special Accommodations

If you have a learning disability, sensory or physical disability or if English is not your first language and you need special assistance in lecture, reading assignments, or written assignments, please contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester. Students with chronic conditions (illness, disability, extenuating personal or family circumstances) that may require special accommodations must notify me in writing by February 2nd. In the case of chronic illness, you must provide a doctor's note written on letterhead with the doctor's name, signature and telephone number. Excuses for chronic conditions will not be granted if documentation is not provided before the February 2nd. The physician must be located in the United States, preferably locally.

Students needing accommodations because of disability will need to register with UGA's Disability Resource Center (DRC) and complete the appropriate forms issued by DRC before accommodations can be provided. The DRC office at the University of Georgia is located at 114 Clark Howell Hall, or the DRC can be reached by phone at (706) 542-8719. For more information, please see: https://drc.uga.edu/

Email

You are welcome to email me whenever you have a question or need clarification about something related to class. Please begin the subject line with PADP 6950 [TUESDAY/THURSDAY] so that I can clearly see the email among our other correspondence. Please also allow sufficient time (12-24 hours) for a response. I will do my best to reply as soon as possible but oftentimes I might be traveling, in day-long meetings, or engaged in other activities that take me away from email. In certain cases, you may pose a good question from which everyone in the class may benefit hearing the answer; in those circumstances I may copy in the class email list when I reply.

Netiquette

Students are expected to abide by professional standards in all written and spoken communications, including email, web-based and other electronic communications. I will not respond to emails without a subject line or appropriate salutation. For a guide to respectful electronic communications, please see: http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html

Acknowledgements

In designing this course I looked closely at 1) how other faculty members teach PADP 6950 at UGA and 2) intermediate and introductory microeconomic courses at the nation's other top schools of public affairs and public policy. To that end I gratefully acknowledge that some of the ideas, readings, and cases I use in this course have been borrowed from microeconomics courses such as those at the University of Washington's Evans School of Public Policy and Governance and Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

Course Assignments Overview

As the semester progresses, I will distribute detailed guidance regarding assignments under separate cover.

General Thoughts on Assignments

This course aims to provide advanced training in both the theory, practice, and consumption of public policy from a microeconomic perspective. To that end, coursework consists almost solely of applying and/or articulating economic concepts to address relevant policy questions just as one might when working as an analyst or manager at a public, private, or non-profit organization. Accordingly, I expect your assignments to be well organized, thoughtful, clearly written, and free of typos and errors. Please do not turn in any assignment that has not first been edited for grammar and typos both by you and by another individual (a friend, a classmate, your partner, etc.). When I read and grade your assignments I am evaluating your ability to critically analyze the issue; typos, poor sentence structure, and grammatical errors distract me from what is important.

A few notes regarding deliverables:

• All assignments are due to the course @eLearning page by class time on the designated due date
• Files must be clearly labelled using the following format: 'Firstinitial.Lastname.PADP6950.Section.Assignment'. Assignments that do not follow this convention will not be accepted.
• All written work must be double spaced, with 1-inch margins.
• All assignments must be submitted in .pdf format. Assignments not submitted as a .pdf file will be returned for revision and will be marked late.

Deliverables Schedule

Deliverables

Please note that specific details for each assignment will be passed out under separate heading and cover. The text below is meant to provide an overview of how the course assignments fit together. As the semester progresses, I will distribute detailed guidance regarding each stage of the project (e.g., idea sketch, working draft, etc.). Those documents will also be posted on this page.

1. Exam I

Exam I (25% of course grade): This exam will be given as a ''closed book'' midterm, and will cover topics from the first half of the course. The exam will be in long-answer/essay format; you will be asked to respond to six different prompts in no more 3-5 sentences each. The exam will take place in class; you will need to bring a laptop computer to class on this day, as the exam must be typed and submitted electronically. Please contact me at least one week prior to the exam if you are unable to bring a computer to class.

1a. Exam I Makeup

You can redo two exam problems for replacement credit. Your deliverable should be 2 pages, with one question on each. Each question should be answered in no more than 4 sentences.

2. Policy Analysis Paper (Outline) (Final)

This paper should be no more than 1250 words (3-4 pages). Your assignment is to provide a short economic evaluation of some existing or proposed policy. You should 1) assess the problem addressed by the policy, 2) describe the policy, 3) explain how the policy addresses the problem, 4) use economic reasoning in your explanations, 5) provide at least one possible unintended consequence of the policy, and 6) offer one policy recommendation that directly follows from the explanations or consequences provided in the memo. The details of the policy should be reviewed using available information from the news and academic outlets (include citations). The analysis should appeal to an explicit economic model discussed during the course (graphs and jargon may be used as appropriate). Your topic should be in an area that is of particular interest to you. Your policy memo will be graded on the six items listed above as well as on the clarity of the writing overall.

3. Peer Review: Policy Analysis Paper

One page maximum, typed. This document will provide feedback on a peer's policy analysis paper. I will provide a handout that details how you should conduct your review.

4. Policy tool presentation

For this assignment, you are asked to partner with a classmate to lead a 5-7 minute in-class discussion regarding a particular “policy tool” as identified within Salamon’s “Tools of Government” book.

5. Policy tool memo

Working with your presentation partner, you will also prepare a brief 1-page memo that evaluates the potential use of your tool for a given problem, and recommends whether you think it would be a good course of action or not.

This is a graduate-level course, and so I expect that you will do all readings prior to class. This is important not only because class discussions will draw heavily on the readings, but also because material from the readings can (will) be draw upon for your exams. Please note that the application and discussion readings are not meant to be an endorsement of a particular viewpoint, but rather to show how microeconomics is relevant to modern policy issues. What you are responsible for with regards to these readings is being able to articulate, defend, and critique the author's argument, not necessarily for agreeing with the author! There are two types of readings assigned in this course.

• Technical Resource: This reading will typically be a chapter from the Varian Intermediate Microeconomics textbook. This reading is meant to provide you with the ''nuts-and-bolts'' background regarding the concept in question. As this course does not require you to complete problem sets, in reading the technical resource each week be sure to focus on the key concepts and mechanisms discussed more so than the match involved. For example, you should be able to describe income and substitution effects (you will learn what these terms mean) and have facility with the concepts even if you are not able to calculate the effects.
• Discussion Pieces: Theoretically oriented and/or applied discussions are meant to be thought provoking, potentially provide a contrarian viewpoint, or provide a pragmatic example of the concepts presented in the Varian text. Often, the practical application reading will also extend--or challenge--standard microeconomic theory in light of interesting real-world phenomena. You need not agree with the author's point, but you should be able to articulate the author's argument and provide both supporting and counter points.

Reading Schedule