With budgets squeezed at every level of government, cost-benefit analysis (CBA) holds outstanding potential for assessing the efficiency of many programs. In this first book to address the application of CBA to social policy, experts examine ten of the most important policy domains: early childhood development, elementary and secondary schools, health care for the disadvantaged, mental illness, substance abuse and addiction, juvenile crime, prisoner reentry programs, housing assistance, work-incentive programs for the unemployed and employers, and welfare-to-work interventions. Each contributor discusses the applicability of CBA to actual programs, describing both proven and promising examples.
The editors provide an introduction to cost-benefit analysis, assess the programs described, and propose a research agenda for promoting its more widespread application in social policy. Investing in the Disadvantaged considers how to face America’s most urgent social needs with shrinking resources, showing how CBA can be used to inform policy choices that produce social value.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Michael A. Stegman
Preface
1. Assessing the Costs and Benefits of Social Policies
Aidan R. Vining and David L. Weimer
2. Early Childhood Interventions
Barbara Wolfe and Nathan Tefft
3. Elementary and Secondary Schooling
Clive R. Belfield
4. Health Care for Disadvantaged Populations
David J. Vanness
5. Adults with Serious Mental Illnesses
Mark S. Salzer
6. Illicit Substance Abuse and Addiction
Jonathan P. Caulkins
7. Juvenile Crime Interventions
Jeffrey A. Butts and John K. Roman
8. Prisoner Reentry Programming
John K. Roman and Christy Visher
9. Housing Assistance to Promote Human Capital
Lance Freeman
10. Encouraging Work
Robert Lerman
11. Next Steps in Welfare-to-Work
Michael Wiseman
12. Welfare-to-Work and Work-Incentive Programs
David Greenberg
13. Overview of the State-of-the-Art of CBA in Social Policy
Aidan R. Vining and David L. Weimer
14. Agenda for Promoting and Improving the Use of CBA in Social Policy
David L. Weimer and Aidan R. Vining
List of Contributors
Index
Reviews
"Provides an authoritative guide to evidence-based social policy by some of the leading scholars in the field. For anyone who wants to know what works, what's worthwhile, and what research would have the greatest payoff, this book has benefits far exceeding the cost."—Philip Cook, ITT/Sanford Professor of Public Policy, Duke University
"This book sets out ideas about the kinds of information that could and should be available when major social policy decisions are being made. But, more than that, it provides a broad review of what is available now and of what might be desired in the short and long run. The logic is compelling."—Eric Hanushek, senior fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
"This volume contributes to the new burst of interest in the topic of cost-benefit analysis, especially as applied to social policies. The editors have chosen outstanding authors, and their contributions are both enlightening and provocative. The book makes a major contribution toward furthering the application of sound analysis across [a] range of options."—Robert Haveman, professor, Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Contributors
Clive R. Belfield Jeffrey A. Butts Jonathan P. Caulkins Lance Freeman David Greenberg Robert Lerman John K. Roman Mark S. Salzer Nathan Tefft David J. Vanness Aidan R. Vining Christy Visher David L. Weimer Michael Wiseman Barbara Wolfe
About the Author
David L. Weimer is professor of public affairs and political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a former president of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.
Aidan R. Vining is CNABS Professor of Business and Government Relations at Simon Fraser University.
David L. Weimer and Aidan R. Vining are coauthors of Policy Analysis: Concepts and Practice, now in its fourth edition.
