IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jpamgt/v10y1991i4p616-632.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Congress writes a law: Research and welfare reform

Author

Listed:
  • Ron Haskins

    (Developmental psychologist, is a social policy advisor to Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee, U.S.)

Abstract

This paper traces the development of the Family Support Act of 1988 in the U.S. House of Representatives. The author, a Republican staff member, examines the impact of research on the policy environment that made welfare reform possible, on the arguments presented in committee hearings and bill-writing sessions, on the House debate, and on the final House|Senate Conference Committee approval. He concludes that social science research can and does play a useful role in formulation of public policy, although the domain of application is not as broad as many scholars think. However, given the partisan nature of policy formulation and the desire of social scientists to join the process, normal methods of quality control in social science research are too often forgotten, to the detriment of sound public decision-making.

Suggested Citation

  • Ron Haskins, 1991. "Congress writes a law: Research and welfare reform," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(4), pages 616-632.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jpamgt:v:10:y:1991:i:4:p:616-632
    DOI: 10.2307/3324988
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2307/3324988
    File Function: Link to full text; subscription required
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2307/3324988?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aaron, Henry J, 1989. "Politics and the Professors Revisited," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(2), pages 1-15, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Christopher Robert & Richard Zeckhauser, 2011. "The methodology of normative policy analysis," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(3), pages 613-643, June.
    2. Michael Wiseman, 1991. "Research and policy: An afterword for the symposium on the family support act of 1988," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(4), pages 657-666.
    3. David Greenberg & Marvin Mandell & Matthew Onstott, 2000. "The dissemination and utilization of welfare-to-work experiments in state policymaking," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(3), pages 367-382.
    4. DAVID H. Greenberg, 1992. "Conceptual Issues In Cost/Benefit Analysis Of Welfare‐To‐Work Programs," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 10(4), pages 51-64, October.
    5. Straßheim, Holger, 2001. "Der Ruf der Sirenen - Zur Dynamik politischen Benchmarkings: Eine Analyse anhand der US-Sozialreformen," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Regulation of Work FS II 01-201, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    6. Douglas J. Besharov, 2009. "Presidential address: From the Great Society to continuous improvement government: Shifting from “does it work?” to “what would make it better?”," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(2), pages 199-220.
    7. Judith M. Gueron & Gayle Hamilton, 2023. "Using Multi-Arm Designs to Test Operating Welfare-to-Work Programs," Evaluation Review, , vol. 47(1), pages 71-103, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Peter deLeon, 1987. "The influence of analysis on U.S. defense policys," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 20(2), pages 105-128, June.
    2. Richard E. Just & Gordon C. Rausser, 1989. "An Assessment of the Agricultural Economics Profession," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 71(5), pages 1177-1190.
    3. Beryl A. Radin, 1997. "Presidential address: The evolution of the policy analysis field: From conversation to conversations," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(2), pages 204-218.
    4. John D. Wilson, 1990. "The Optimal Taxation of Internationally Mobile Capital in an Efficiency Wage Model," NBER Chapters, in: Taxation in the Global Economy, pages 397-432, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Fullerton, Don & Metcalf, Gilbert E., 2002. "Tax incidence," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 26, pages 1787-1872, Elsevier.
    6. Ludwig, Jens, 1999. "Information and inner city educational attainment," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 17-30, February.
    7. Douglas J. Besharov, 2009. "Presidential address: From the Great Society to continuous improvement government: Shifting from “does it work?” to “what would make it better?”," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(2), pages 199-220.
    8. Isabel V. Sawhill, 1995. "Distinguished Lecture on Economics in Government: The Economist vs. Madmen in Authority," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 3-13, Summer.
    9. Eric A. Hanushek, 1990. "The policy research markets," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 9(2), pages 146-154.
    10. Pablo Serra & Juan Toro, 1994. "¿Es Eficiente el Sistema Tributario Chileno?," Latin American Journal of Economics-formerly Cuadernos de Economía, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile., vol. 31(94), pages 423-448.
    11. Smith, Vincent H., 1998. "Measuring the benefits of social science research," Impact assessments 2, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    12. Osberg, Lars, 2012. "Increasing Inequality is Unbalanced Growth: Evidence from North America," CLSSRN working papers clsrn_admin-2012-22, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 28 Sep 2012.
    13. Charles E. McLure, Jr., 1992. "The Political Economy of Tax Reforms and Their Implications for Interdependence: United States," NBER Chapters, in: The Political Economy of Tax Reform, pages 97-116, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. L. M. Mead, "undated". "Are welfare employment programs effective?," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1096-96, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.
    15. Coralie Perez, 2000. "« L'évaluation expérimentale des programmes d'emploi et de formation aux Etats-Unis : éléments de critique interne »," Post-Print halshs-00370754, HAL.
    16. Edgar L. Feige, 2000. "Taxation for the 21st century: the automated payment transaction (APT) tax," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 15(31), pages 474-511.
    17. R. D. Plotnick & E. Smolensky & E. Evenhouse & S. Reilly, "undated". "The Twentieth Century Record of Inequality and Poverty in the United States," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1166-98, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.
    18. Ramser, Hans Jürgen, 1990. "Industriepolitik und Wachstumstheorie: Referat anläßlich des 20. Wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Seminars Ottobeuren, 25.-28. September 1990," Discussion Papers, Series I 249, University of Konstanz, Department of Economics.
    19. Thirsk, Wayne, 1991. "Lessons from tax reform : an overview," Policy Research Working Paper Series 576, The World Bank.
    20. Gilbert E. Metcalf, 2014. "Using the Tax System to Address Competition Issues With a Carbon Tax," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 67(4), pages 779-806, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:jpamgt:v:10:y:1991:i:4:p:616-632. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/34787/home .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.