1st Edition
Hybrid Public Policy Innovations Contemporary Policy Beyond Ideology
Political discourse in much of the world remains mired in simplistic ideological dichotomies of market fundamentalism for efficiency versus substantial socialism for equity. Contemporary public policy design is far more sophisticated. It blends market, government and community tools to simultaneously achieve both equity and efficiency. Unlike in the twentieth century, this design is increasingly grounded in a deep evidence base derived by way of rigorous empirical techniques. A new paradigm is emerging: hybrid policies.
This volume provides a thorough introduction to this technical side of public policy analysis and development. It demonstrates that it is possible to go beyond ideology, and find there some powerful answers to our most pressing problems. An international team of experts, many of whom have experience with the design or implementation of hybrid policies, helps cover the behavioural, institutional and regulatory theories that inform the choice of policy objectives and lead the initial conception of solutions. They explain the reasons why we need evidence-based public policy and the state-of-the-art empirical techniques involved in its development. And they analyse a range of in-depth case studies from industrial relations to health care to illustrate how hybrids can intermingle the strengths of governments, markets and the community to combat the weaknesses of each and arrive at bipartisan outcomes.
Hybrid Public Policy Innovations is geared to scholars and practitioners of public policy administration and management who desire to understand the analytical reasons why policies are designed the way they are, and the purpose of evidence-gathering frameworks attached to policies at implementation.
Preface 1. The Ends and Means of Public Policy [Mark Fabian] 2. Behavioural Theories and Public Policy [Uwe Dulleck] 3. Institutions Matter: An Introduction to The Role of Institutions in Public Policy [Julia Talbot-Jones] 4. Regulatory Theories and Frameworks [Elizabeth Bluff] 5. Why Do We Need Evidence-Based Public Policy? [Robert Breunig] 6. Making Facts and Telling Furphies with Economic Modelling: Cost–Benefit Analysis in The Post-Truth Era [Leo Dobes] 7. Policy Experimentation and Impact Evaluation: The Case of a Student Voucher System in New Zealand [Sholeh A. Maani] 8. HECS: A Hybrid Model for Higher-Education Financing [Bruce Chapman] 9. Revisiting Danish Flexicurity After a Decade of Reform: Does the Labour Market Still Work for Everyone? [Henning Jørgensen and Mads Peter Klindt] 10. Building an Adequate but Sustainable Retirement Incomes System [Andrew Podger and Michael Keating] 11. Massaging the Market with Industrial Policy: Lessons from FYR Macedonia And Malaysia [Volker Treichel] 12. Government–Market Mixes for Health Care [Andrew Podger] 13. Balancing Efficiency and Equity in the Tax and Transfer System [Miranda Stewart and Peter Whiteford] 14. Inclusive Growth: Hybrid Policies into The Future [Glenn Withers] 15. Evidence-Based Policy Making in The Tropics: Are Developing Countries Different?[Stephen Howes, Ashlee Betteridge, Lawrence Sauss and Lhawang Ugyel]16. The Political Realities of Policy Design and Implementation[John Hewson]
Biography
Mark Fabian is a PhD Candidate in Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy where he teaches economics for public policy and development economics. He conducts research into welfare and sustainable development at the intersection of philosophy and economics. His most recent published work was on long work hours in Australia, and his current projects concern how we can better integrate philosophical and psychological knowledge about happiness and wellbeing into public policy.
Robert Breunig is former Director of the Crawford School of Public Policy where he teaches empirical public policy and director of the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute. He is a frequent collaborator with the Australian government. He conducts research in three main areas: applied labour economics, policy impact evaluation and behavioural responses to the tax system. In recent work, he has studied the inter-generational transmission of dependence on government assistance; he has examined the relationship between women’s labour supply and childcare policy and studied optimal childcare subsidy policies; he has examined the complex relationship between outsourcing and innovation; and he has estimated taxpayer responsiveness in the Australian tax system.
'A timely antidote to the siren song of populism, Hybrid Public Policy Innovations reminds us of the value of evidence-based policy. Grounded in theory, and illustrated with examples from schools to water, jobs to pensions, the highly qualified contributors to this book make a powerful case for solutions grounded in facts, reason and rigorous analysis.' - Andrew Leigh, Member of the Australian Parliament and author of Choosing Openness
'In a world where evidence and expertise are under sustained attack from well-resourced think tanks, major political parties and a large section of the media, it is important to restate the benefits of an evidence-based approach to public policy, leading to an approach that works with the strengths of the market, government intervention and civil society. This book is both a defence of evidence-based policy and a guide to recent innovations.' - John Quiggin, Australian Laureate Fellow in Economics, University of Queensland
'This book is a collection of independent, but coherently connected, chapters on public policy issues with a focus on Australia. The authors are from diverse backgrounds – from academics to politicians – and possess different expertise.They cover important behavioural, institutional and regulatory issues that can modify the effectiveness of policies and offer some solutions and priorities to address those issues. This book is not a textbook, but it has the potential to be so for policy-makers. Those who seriously think about evidence-based policy-making, regardless of their background, will also find the book useful. Courses related to quantitative policy evaluation may also employ the book as a text, supplemented by more quantitative materials on policy evaluation. I am looking forward to using it for my lectures on impact evaluation.' — Syed Hasan, School of Economics an
