Knowledge and Incentives in Policy: Using Public Choice and Market Process Theory to Analyze Public Policy Issues

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Published by Bloomsbury Publishing in Economy, Polity, and Society

The relative effectiveness of various institutions, such as the market or government, is based on the ability for individuals to access and use dispersed knowledge in society and the incentives that steer their actions. Market process theory emphasizes the effectiveness of the price system to consolidate and transmit knowledge in the marketplace. 

Together this framework provides new insights on the capability of individuals to cooperate and improve society, and the limits to government interventions in society. The original research in each chapter uses this economic way of thinking to analyze a variety of public policy issues, examining the incentives responsible for and the factors that contribute to the creation and effectiveness of the policies. These chapters, authored by public policy practitioners and researchers, tackle such pressing issues as public education, the process for approving medical devices, tax policy, and land use regulation.

Contents

Chapter 1: Can Governments Create Bureaucratic Structures That Overcome Knowledge and Incentive Problems? An Analysis of the Millennium Challenge Corporation
Rosemarie Fike

Chapter 2: The Political Economy of Intervention in the Conflict against ISIS
David Wille

Chapter 3: FDA Effectiveness Standards: Helpful or Harmful?
Anna Rivers

Chapter 4: Exit, Voice, and Incentives: An Institutional Analysis of Urban Public School Districts
Rachel Reese

Chapter 5: Firm-Specific Tax Incentives: The Bad and the Ugly
Adam N. Michel

Chapter 6: A Better Tomorrow: Policy Reform and the Limitations of State-Led Targeted Economic Development
Courtney Michaluk

Chapter 7: The Political Economy of Casino Licensing: A Case Study on Maryland’s Experience
Candace McTeer Mottice

Chapter 8: The Political Economy of D.C. School Choice: An Institutional Analysis of the Opportunity Scholarship Program
Allison Kasic

Chapter 9: Stifling Urban Development with Land-Use Regulation: A Case Study of Redevelopment in Tysons Corner, Virginia
Emily Hamilton