Substantively, I am interested in the question: How can we organize the governance
of medicine to integrate appropriately values, interests, and expertise? My current
efforts to answer this question involve a study of decision making within the Organ
Procurement and Transplantation Network, an organization that engages in private
rule-making. I also have a long-standing interest in policy craft. Most recently this
interest has led me to the question of whether or not the wider application of
cost-benefit analysis would promote better social policy. A volume, co-edited with Aidan
Vining, addressing this question based on a project done for the MacArthur Foundation was
published recently by Georgetown University Press. In addition to these ongoing
interests, I am engaging in health services research looking at the impact of health
report cards and racial disparity in access to quality health care, the social and fiscal
impacts of early detection and treatment of Alzheimer's disease, and the proper
accounting for addiction in cost-benefit analysis. An empirical effort employing
contingent valuation methods to relate the willingness-to-pay of smokers to eliminate
addiction to the "unaddicted" demand schedule for cigarettes appeared recently
in Health Economics. Finally, I am interested in how we can design institutions to
promote better the use of evidence in policy making.

Articles

OpenURL

An Assessment of Important Issues Concerning the Application of Benefit-Cost Analysis to Social Policy (with Aidan R. Vining), Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis (2010)
 

Link

Cost-Benefit Analysis Involving Addictive Goods: Contingent Valuation for Willingness-to-Pay for Smoking Cessation (with Aidan R. Vining and Randall K. Thomas), Health Economics (2009)

The valuation of changes in consumption of addictive goods resulting from policy interventions presents a...

 

OpenURL

Early Identification and Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease: Social and Fiscal Outcomes (with Mark A. Sager), Alzheimer's & Dementia (2009)

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that places substantial burdens on those who...

 

OpenURL

Integrating Delegation into the Policy Theory Literature (with Stéphane Lavertu), Policy Studies Journal (2009)

Public policy scholars have developed a number of theories of the policymaking process. Their work...

 

Books

Medical Governance: Values, Expertise, and Interests in Organ Transplantation (2010)

Medical governance works well when it engages professional expertise and advances appropriate values. To be...

 

Investing in the Disadvantaged: Assessing the Costs and Benefits of Social Policies (with Aidan R. Vining) (2009)

Investing in the disadvantaged increases their opportunities. Such investments also often provide broader social benefits....

 

Cost-Benefit Analysis: Concepts and Practice, 3rd Edition (with Anthony E. Boardman, David H. Greenberg, and Aidan R. Vining) (2006)

Cost-benefit analysis provides a protocol for assessing the efficiency impacts of proposed policies. This book...

 

Policy Analysis: Concepts and Practice, 4th Edition (with Aidan R. Vining) (2005)

Policy analysis is client-oriented advice relevant to public decisions and informed by social values. This...

 

Organizational Report Cards (with William T. Gormley, Jr.) (1999)

Report cards comparing the performance of organizations, such as hospitals, public schools, and colleges, have...

 

Contributions to Books

Making Education Research More Policy Analytic, Handbook of Education Policy Research (2009)

By adopting a more policy-analytic perspective, those producing research relevant to education policy would potentially...