Analysis and Public Policy

Successes, Failures and Directions for Reform

New Horizons in Public Policy series

Stuart Shapiro, Professor, Bloustein School of Planning and Policy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, US

How do we incorporate analytical thinking into public policy decisions? Stuart Shapiro confronts this issue in Analysis and Public Policy by looking at various types of analysis, and discussing how they are used in regulatory policy-making in the US. By looking at the successes and failures of incorporating cost-benefit analysis, risk assessment, and environmental impact assessment, he draws broader lessons on its use, focusing on the interactions between analysis and political factors, legal structures and bureaucratic organizations as possible areas for reform.

‘In this outstanding book, Stuart Shapiro transcends the long-standing impasse in the academic literature about the value of various analysis tools – cost-benefit analysis in particular – and moves the scholarly conversation in a much more productive and useful direction.’
– Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis- Wendy Wagner, University of Texas School of Law, US