Public Finance Public Policy Paper Igor Baranov Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg University

Page  2 Public Policy Paper: General Requirements  Groups of 4 students  25% of the total score for the course  What is graded? - In-class presentation (10 minutes) according to the schedule - Written paper submitted AFTER presentation (deadline: April 28, 2009), up to 5,000 words  Evaluation: - Following Writing Public Policy Paper guidelines - Quality of presentation - Q&A session for the group  Reference: Writing Effective Public Policy Papers by E.Young and L.Quinn. OSI, 2002.

Page  3 Public Administration: Roles and Professions  Politicians  Civil servants  Policy analysts  Researchers  Managers in public sector organizations  Business-government relations analysts in private companies

Page  4 Policy Study vs Policy Analysis  Policy study –Who: researchers / academics –Where: universities, research institutes –What: to understand and inform the policy-making process by carrying out primary research into specific policy issues  Policy analysis –Who: analysts –Where: think tanks / policy centers –What: designing actual policy to be implemented Policy studies are issue-driven, whereas policy analyses are client-driven

Page  5 Areas of DifferencePolicy StudyPolicy Analysis AudienceTargets other policy specialists Targets decision- makers FocusIssue-driven: General recommendations on policy issues Client-driven: Designing specific policies to be implemented on the ground MethodologyPrimary researchRarely includes primary research Ideas / language usedCan be quite discipline specific / technical Must be very clear and simple LengthUp to 20,000 wordsNot usually longer than 5,000 words

Page  6 The Policy Cycle  Problem definition / Agenda setting Show that a problem exists that requires government action  Constructing the Policy Alternatives / Policy Formulation Consider all possible solutions  Choice of Solution / Selection of Preferred Policy Option Evaluate each option and choose your preferred one  Policy design Choosing a policy instrument and a delivery organization mix  Policy implementation and monitoring  Evaluation A policy paper can influence any or all stages of the policy cycle

Page  7 Paper Checklist  Which stage(s) in the policy-making process are you trying to influence through your policy paper?  Which stakeholders have been/are involved at each stage of the policy- making process? Who is your “client”?  Have you identified a clear problem to address? Can you summarize it in two sentences?  Do you have sufficiently comprehensive evidence to support your claim that a problem exists?  Have you outlined and evaluated the possible policy options that could solve this problem? What evaluation criteria did you use?  Have you decided on a preferred alternative?  Do you have sufficient evidence to effectively argue for your chosen policy alternative over the others?  Prepare “Elevator speech”

Page  8 Policy Paper: Structure  Title  Table of contents  Abstract / Executive summary  Introduction  Problem description  Policy options  Conclusions and recommendations  Bibliography  Appendices

Page  9 Abstract / Executive Summary  Purpose of the paper  Definition and description of the policy problem  Evaluation of policy alternatives  Conclusion and recommendations

Page  10 Introduction  Context of the policy problem  Definition of the policy problem  Statement of intent  Methodology and limitations of the study  Road map of the paper

Page  11 Conclusion and Recommendations  Synthesis of major findings –highlights main points from the problem description and policy options elements  Set of policy recommendations  Concluding remarks

Page  12 Writing Style  Write by paragraphs! –Paragraph has to indicate both logical and physical breaks in the text