POLICY ANALYSIS
OUTLINE GUIDE
1) Intro – Problem Formulation/Statement
Identify the problem  situate it  restatement of problem  alternatives
As part of the problem formulation/statement, one must identify or drawn on a theory of
causation – implicitly or explicitly - for example, how people respond to incentives or how
bureaucracies tend to work.
2) Background & Literature
A background section may have a multiple purposes, depending on your audience and the
purpose of your PA. If you are working for a legislator, knowing the legislative history is
important and useful. Often it is helpful to provide a perspective on the extent of the
problem and the landscape in which the problem is situated.
It is important that you don't just dump information here, but really include only what is
relevant and useful. Clearly, this depends on where you are going with your analysis – you
may have to work forward and come back and re-work this.
If you are reviewing policies related to your topic from a historical perspective, make sure
you give the reader a sense of why this is important to know. You should also discuss what
factors guided those decisions - the strengths and limits of the policies and the context in
which they developed – has the context changed??? Remember – policy is not created in a
void – there are competing needs or interests. You do need to think about what is relevant –
either in policy or contextual sense. What is nice about the Weimer &Vining’s Salmon
context piece, although long, is that gives you a sense of what has been tried and how the
pluses and minuses and the given constraints of the time.
3) Policy Goals & Criteria
The policy goals should not be solely driven from what you would like to see – but, what is
useful and possible for your audience.
Identifying goals/criteria is a critical step. Often within existing policies there are goals and
criteria already developed/stated. If you are doing a more empirically oriented policy
analysis, you can enhance this section with a theory of action/change (theoretical or
conceptual framework). This is required for empirical Policy Analyses. Most importantly on
the criteria selection – is for you to be clear about your methods/rationale for selecting the
criteria with clear statements of the values embedded within the criteria.
You do not need to do a formal CAM as Munger suggests, but it is a useful tool to categorize
and discuss the issues related to alternatives and to the relative importance of the criteria and
discuss the tradeoffs among alternatives in terms of the criteria. You don't need to have
explicit weights as CAM does.
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4) Analysis – Empirical or Analytical
Assessing Usefulness or Impacts of Policies (empirical)
Building off the discussion in section 3 and the theory of action/change or
theoretical/conceptual framework, you will establish a formal empirical model that you will
test or use in your analysis.
A) Empirical Model or Approach
Develop an empirical model or describe your approach to doing the research. Your
model or approach must be informed by prior research and theory.
B) Operationalization
Operationalize the specific variables that you will use in your study – how they are
measured. For example, if you are interested in Teacher Quality (concept), then how will
you measure it (operationalization – e.g., credentials)
C) Data Sources
Identify and describe the sources of data that will be used in the analysis and indicate
where these data are from – e.g., publicly available or restricted use data or collected by
you.
D) Sample
Identify and describe your sample and motivate why it is an appropriate one to use.
E) Results
Describe the results of your empirical analysis and include a discussion of possible
explanations or alternate explanations of your findings.
Analyzing Alternatives Policies (analytical)
A) Identification
Identify and describe – briefly the possible policy alternatives. In a sense, this is a tricky
step because you want to work within reasonable bounds here.
It is often useful to include the status quo or current policy as a base alternative --provides a perspective on the current policy in light of the relevant criteria.
B) Comparison of alternatives based on criteria
Develop a matrix of alternatives and criteria. This discussion should reflect the
goals/criteria you established earlier. There are at least two ways of organizing the
discussion:
i) W&V Salmon example where you discuss each alternative in turn – for each you
discuss the policy in relation to each criteria.
ii) Center the discussion on the criteria, discussing each criteria in turn – for each
criteria you discuss the alternatives.
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5) Political, Organizational or Other Constraints
If you are doing an analytical study of alternative policies, then you may include these
specific issues either here or in your criteria. If you are doing an empirical study of the
usefulness or impact of policies, then you should reflect on your empirical findings and
discuss the political, organization or other constraints that may shape the policy context for
your findings.
6) Implications, Implementation or Evaluation
Again, depending on your interest – you may want to go into more detail on implications,
implementation and/or evaluation --- if this is critical to you let's talk. At a minimum you
should identify and discuss the implications of your analysis, challenges of implementing the
favored alternative and how you might evaluate its effectiveness or how your empirical
analysis might be extended.
Supplemental Bibliographic References on Policy Analysis
Bardach, E. (2009). A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis: The Eightfold Path to More
Effective Problem Solving. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.
Hird, J.A. (2005). Policy Analysis in the States: Power, Knowledge and Politics.
Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press
Munger, Michael C. (2000). Analyzing Policy: Choices, Conflicts, and Practice. New
York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.
Weimer, D.L. and Vining, A.R. (2004). Policy Analysis: Concepts and Practice (4th
Edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
 Preview – “The Canadian Salmon Fishery”
 Chapter 2 – “What is Policy Analysis”
 Chapter 14 – “Landing on Your Feet: How to Confront Policy Problems”
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