Deck 6: Assessing Policy Alternatives

Question 1

Which of the following policy analysis criteria deals with whether a policy has a fair process or policy outcome?

A) legitimation
B) equity
C) effectiveness
D) efficiency

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which government office is in charge of monitoring how other agencies conduct cost-benefit analyses?

A) Office of Management and Budget
B) Office of Cost Efficiency
C) Council of Economic Advisors
D) Council of Environmental Quality

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which term is used in cost-benefit analysis when discussing the present value of future benefits?

A) discount rate
B) indexing
C) opportunity cost
D) sensitivity analysis

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Using a ______ allows analysts to determine the value of future benefits today.

A) opportunity costs
B) discount rate
C) contingent valuation methods
D) none of these

Question 5

Evaluative criteria are ______.

A) the policy alternatives available to policy actors.
B) those that measure the policy actors involved in a policy issue.
C) the important aspects of the policy proposal on which you will make comparisons.
D) arbitrary standards that are the same for all policy issues.

Question 6

When determining how to respond to rising energy costs, policy makers assessed the likely environmental, health, and safety impacts of energy exploration, development, and use. This is an example of ______.

A) applying risk-assessment approaches to analyze policy options
B) the evaluative criterion of liberty
C) assessing the cost benefit of the policy options
D) assessing the technical feasibility of the options.

Question 7

Cost/benefit analysis is a useful tool in policy analysis. It can be used to ______.

A) forecast the likely impact of various possible policy alternatives
B) provide information about the scope and nature of a problem
C) analyze the efficiency of various possible policy alternatives
D) judge the effectiveness of an implemented policy

Question 8

This decision-making tool studies the expected outcomes of a policy proposal while also calculating the expected financial impact.

A) cost-benefit analysis
B) risk assessment
C) implementation analysis
D) forecasting

Question 9

______ refers to the availability and reliability of technology needed for policy implementation.

A) Technical feasibility
B) Administrative feasibility
C) Financial feasibility
D) Technological efficiency

Question 10

A difficult and relatively infrequent type of policy analysis that systematically examines conflicts and concerns about policy alternatives from the standpoint of values and rights is referred to as ______.

A) cost-benefit analysis
B) ethical analysis
C) decision analysis
D) risk analysis

Question 11

This analytical technique uses historical data to make estimates of future numbers.

A) cost-benefit analysis
B) risk assessment
C) implementation analysis
D) projection

Question 12

This "cousin" of cost-benefit analysis does not attempt to assign dollar values to potential benefits but instead assumes they will occur and looks for the cheapest way to achieve them.

A) cost-effectiveness analysis
B) risk assessment
C) program evaluation
D) impact analysis

Question 13

Which of the following policy analysis criteria looks at the achievement of goals in relationship to the costs to achieve them?

A) effectiveness
B) equity
C) political feasibility
D) efficiency

Question 14

Policy analysts can estimate the value of a human life through ______.

A) contingent valuation methods
B) sensitivity analysis
C) risk evaluation
D) impact assessment

Question 15

The debate over ______, discussed in the beginning of Chapter 6, involved policy proposals that utilized many of the instruments of public policy as well as most of the evaluative criteria.

A) health-care policy
B) education policy
C) welfare policy
D) energy policy

Question 16

______ refers to the policy analysis method that assesses the potential for harm that might result (to people or to the environment) if potential hazards should occur.

A) Forecasting
B) Cost-benefit analysis
C) Risk analysis
D) Program evaluation

Question 17

This decision-making tool analyzes the potential harm to people or other negative effects of a proposed policy solution.

A) cost-benefit analysis
B) risk assessment
C) implementation analysis
D) forecasting

Question 18

Which statement best describes the relationship of policy analysis to the policy process model?

A) The two activities are essentially separate and independent activities.
B) Completion of the policy process model occurs first, and then policy analysis begins.
C) Policy analysis supports the policy process at several points by increasing understanding of problems and possible solutions.
D) While only the government completes all steps of the policy process model, many other interest groups are involved in policy analysis.

Question 19

______ deals with the likelihood that an agency or department can implement a policy well.

A) Administrative feasibility
B) Efficiency
C) Technical feasibility
D) Effectiveness

Question 20

______ focuses on analyzing policy results and outcomes.

A) Decision analysis
B) Risk assessment
C) Cost-effectiveness analysis
D) Program evaluation

Question 21

______ is a close relative of cost-benefit analysis.

A) Risk assessment
B) Opportunity costs
C) Risk evaluation
D) Risk management

Question 22

The FAA's risk assessment indicated that the new seats would prevent an estimated ______ deaths.

A) 90
B) 100
C) 114
D) 120

Question 23

In some states, legislators may be more likely to propose laws allowing gay marriage than in other states. Gay marriage is more ______ in the states that pass such laws.

A) equitable
B) technically feasible
C) effective
D) socially acceptable

Question 24

Equity concerns are central when it comes to ______ policies, since different groups of people pay for and benefit from these policies.

A) redistributive
B) regulatory
C) monetary
D) salient

Question 25

The evaluative criterion of ______ is concerned with how well the policy has worked and the policy outcomes that occur.

Question 26

Being stuck in traffic imposes ______ on drivers because they could be doing something more productive with their time.

A) a policy gridlock
B) an opportunity cost
C) a risk assessment
D) an inducement

Question 27

A local government is interested in planning for certain services for older adults as the baby boom generation ages. The agency develops estimates of the number of older adults who will be living in the area in 2015, 2020, 2025, and 2030. This is an example of ______.

A) impact analysis
B) cost-benefit analysis
C) risk assessment
D) forecasting

Question 28

In ______, Congress approved the Food Safety Modernization Act to ensure that the U.S. food supply is safe.

A) 2000
B) 2005
C) 2010
D) 2015

Question 29

Gasoline prices surged in ______.

A) 2009-2010
B) 2010-2011
C) 2011-2012
D) 2012-2013

Question 30

With the scarcity of government resources in the past several years, the evaluative criterion of _____ has become more and more important.

A) political feasibility
B) efficiency
C) effectiveness
D) social acceptability

Question 31

Do federally funded abstinence-only programs actually prevent teenage pregnancy? This is a question that relates to the ______ of that policy alternative.

A) effectiveness
B) equity
C) political feasibility
D) efficiency

Question 32

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uses _____ to determine the level of chemicals and other pollutants that can be present in water and still be considered safe to drink.

A) contingent valuation methods
B) sensitivity analysis
C) risk evaluation
D) impact assessment

Question 33

Not every state has laws that require motorcyclists to wear helmets even though they have been shown to reduce the severity of injuries in the event of an accident. States without these laws have weighed the criterion of _____ more strongly than effectiveness.

A) equity
B) efficiency
C) social acceptability
D) liberty/freedom

Question 34

In which of the following years did the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) propose a new regulation that would require airlines to build safer seats to reduce the risk of severe injury or death in the event of an accident?

A) 2000
B) 2002
C) 2004
D) 2006

Question 35

The U.S. Census Bureau estimated a U.S. population of about 396 million in ______.

A) 2020
B) 2030
C) 2040
D) 2050

Question 36

Many individuals recently urged President Obama to reform health care by setting up a single-payer system like the Canadian system. In developing his health-care reform plan, the president ruled out that option early using the criterion of ______ because it was likely to be "dead on arrival" in Congress.

A) political feasibility
B) technical feasibility
C) effectiveness
D) equitable

Question 37

______ can be defined as a procedure for producing factual information about future states of society on the basis of prior information about policy problems.

A) Effectiveness
B) Equity
C) Risk management
D) Forecasting

Question 38

Nearly every policy proposal is concerned with the criterion of ______.

A) effectiveness
B) liberty
C) technical feasibility
D) equity

Question 39

A college student could be working as a waiter and earning US$20,000 annually. However, he is attending college and forgoing that income. This is an example of the _____ to attend college, a cost that the student hopes will be worth the investment in the long run.

A) discount
B) risk evaluation
C) opportunity cost
D) efficiency

Question 40

The population of the United States was about ______ million in 2016.

A) 300
B) 315
C) 325
D) 400

Question 41

______ focuses more on policy results or outcomes than on the process of implementation.

Question 42

An ______ is the systematic examination of ethical or normative issues in public policy, as problematic.

Question 43

______ is a determination of the acceptability of the risks or a decision about what level of safety is desired.

Question 44

The use of ______ can minimize to some extent the weaknesses inherent in cost-benefit analysis.

Question 45

Compare and contrast cost-effectiveness analysis and cost-benefit analysis.

Question 46

______ is usually defined as the magnitude of adverse consequences of an event or exposure.

Question 47

The evaluative criterion of ______ is concerned with how that policy proposal might impinge on individuals' rights and choices.

Question 48

A(n) ______ is often used in the environmental policy arena to estimate the harm that might be incurred or the chance of a possible effects of a particular policy proposal.

Question 49

The evaluative criterion of ______ is concerned with the likely outcomes of the policy relative to the cost to implement it.

Question 50

In a general sense, what are evaluative criteria, and what is their value to policy makers attempting to choose the best policy options?

Question 51

Job impact studies like this are one kind of ______.

Question 52

The U.S. federal ______ tax is the lowest among the world's industrialized nations.

Question 53

______ is a tool used by policy analysts to estimate the frequencies of certain conditions in the future based on historical data.

Question 54

The evaluative criterion of ______ is concerned with the perceived fairness of the policy-making process or its outcomes.

Question 55

Which are the three most commonly utilized criteria for evaluating policy proposals? Define each of these three criteria and give an example of a policy proposal (real or fictitious) in which it could be used.

Question 56

______ describes what governments or other organizations do to deal with risks, such as adopting public policies to regulate them.

Question 57

The advantage of ______ is that it requires no measurements of the value of intangible benefits such as human lives.

Question 58

______ is an economic method of policy analysis that studies the investment needed to enact a policy relative to the expected monetary benefits (in terms of savings or revenues it generates).

Question 59

The term ______ has at least two different meanings in contemporary policy debates.

Question 60

______, which are essentially questionnaires or interviews with individuals, designed to allow an estimate of the dollar value of the time spent stuck in traffic or the preservation of lakes or forests.

Question 61

Ethical analysis is most appropriate for what kinds of issues?

Question 62

Explain what is involved in risk assessment and when this approach is used.

Question 63

Why might forecasting be used to examine an issue? What are the potential drawbacks of this technique?

Question 64

Explain the general approach to conducting a cost-benefit analysis.

Question 65

Discuss the political and institutional approaches to understand proposed policy alternatives.