Social Science in a Policy Context
Richard Price
Director of Policy Analysis and Chief Economist
Defra
27 January 2011
Presenting an overview of the policy context for
Defra and some core interests for evidence
- The political background
- Defra’s approach to evidence
- Reflecting the environment and social impacts
- Drawing it all together
Defra’s priorities are set out in our business plan.
Social sciences support delivery of our priorities
•
Support and develop British farming and
encourage sustainable food production
•
Help to enhance the environment and biodiversity
to improve quality of life
•
Support a strong and sustainable green economy,
resilient to climate change
Defra Business Plan 2010
The wider Coalition government objectives are also
central to Defra objectives, especially the drive
towards measuring Wellbeing
“...the government is asking the Office of National Statistics
to devise a new way of measuring wellbeing in Britain. And
so from April next year, we’ll start measuring our progress
as a country, not just by how our economy is growing, but
by how our lives are improving; not just by our standard of
living, but by our quality of life.”
David Cameron. Nov 25, 2010
‘Evidence’ provides crucial underpinning to Defra’s
policy development
•
•
•
Defra uses evidence to support sound decisions in
developing, implementing and evaluating policy
Evidence includes facts, risks, uncertainties,
ambiguities and analysis of the limits to knowledge,
and the viability of alternative options for future
innovative solutions
Evidence is developed in partnership within and
outside Defra
Evidence is used at all stages of the policy cycle:
thinking through what is the problem, what will
work and assessing the policy impacts
Define the
issue
Agenda
setting
Understand the
situation
Evaluate &
adapt
Implement &
monitor
Outcome
focus
Commit to
responsibilities
Develop &
appraise
options
Prepare
for delivery
What are the social sciences questions for Defra
• Wellbeing
• Social Impacts
• Green Economy
• Understanding and Influencing Behaviour
• Policy specific issues
Reflecting environmental and social impacts in
policy leads to measuring wellbeing
Many definitions agree that wellbeing is multi-dimensional, involving:
•
•
•
•
Material living standards
Health
Education
Personal activities
•
•
•
•
Political voice
Social connections
The environment
A sense of security
These dimensions of wellbeing are exactly what we
are looking at by considering social impacts of a
policy.
We are interested in social impacts because they affect
our wellbeing.
Government Economic Service undertook a Review
of the Economics of SD
The GES Review made five core recommendations:
1.
Use the three capitals framework – assess social impacts
systematically (rather than social capital)
2.
Clearer guidance and better basis for internalising key
environmental externalities – targets and shadow prices?
3.
For non-marginal impacts – an ‘asset check’ for assets
critical to economic and social activity
4.
IA requirement to offer Ministers offsetting measures
5.
More transparent choices on what to pass to future
generations
9
A framework to account for the stocks and flows
contributing to wellbeing is under development
Work in progress
Different but potentially complementary
approaches could be applied
Asset check
Wealth accounting
Focuses on critical environmental assets
Focuses on physical stocks
Forward looking (supports impact
assessment of new policy)
Strong sustainability w.r.t. critical assets
In principle embraces all natural capital
Focuses on flows of services valued in
monetary terms
Backward looking (sustainability of current
growth path) but could inform future
economic planning
Admits substitutability between different
forms of capital
Both approaches are information hungry and rely on good,
frequently updated information on 11
stocks!
We recognise there are many factors contributing
to human behaviour
Infrastructure
Experience
Environmental
change
Norms
Attitudes
Culture
Social
networks
Beliefs
Geography
Situational
factors
Influencing
human
behaviour
Habits
Behavioural
factors
Institutional
framework
Selfefficacy
Values
Identity
Access to
capital
Information
Social
learning
Awareness
Knowledge
Leadership
Altruism
Perceptions
How it all fits together
Defra
/DECC
valuation
Asset
check
Social
Impacts
Taskforce
Green
book
guidance
Natural
capital
Social
capital
Produced and
human capital
Environmental
impacts
Social
impacts
Market
impacts
Design and appraisal
of options
Wellbeing
and GDP
Evaluation
and feedback
Cost- benefit
analysis
Policy
problem
Magenta
book
guidance
Impact
Assessment
BRE Impact
Assessment
Toolkit
BIS
Policy
decision
In summary...
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SD review develops an operational definition of SD which
has traction on policy
Lots of work to improve valuation, including carbon and
ecosystems approach
Transparency on what we want to pass to the next
generation
Requires a ‘critical assets’ assessment to deal with nonmarginal effects, outside CBA, and
Periodic assessment of the stock of assets
Social impacts work links to wellbeing
Work in progress!
Contact:
Richard Price,
Director of Policy Analysis
and Chief Economist
Defra
richard.price@defra.gsi.gov.uk