Policy Evaluation and Analysis Flashcards
7 cards from real CEA practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Policy Evaluation and Analysis flashcards as text
In regulatory impact analysis, which approach estimates the value of a statistical life (VSL) by examining wage premiums workers accept for riskier jobs?
Answer: Hedonic wage regression
Hedonic wage studies isolate the compensating wage differential for occupational mortality risk, which is then used to infer the implicit VSL from workers' revealed preferences.
The 'Hawthorne effect' is a threat to internal validity in policy evaluations because:
Answer: Observed subjects alter behavior simply because they are being studied
The Hawthorne effect means measured outcomes reflect participants' awareness of being observed rather than the program's true causal impact.
Which of the following best describes 'budget incidence analysis' in public finance evaluation?
Answer: Estimating the combined distributional effects of both taxes and government expenditures
Budget incidence combines tax incidence (who bears the burden of taxes) with expenditure incidence (who receives the benefits of spending) to assess net distributional effects.
In program evaluation, 'cream-skimming' refers to service providers who:
Answer: Selectively enroll the easiest-to-serve participants to boost measured results
Cream-skimming occurs when providers under performance-based contracts prefer lower-cost participants who would succeed regardless, distorting measured program effectiveness.
A policy analyst uses a 'synthetic control' method when:
Answer: A single treated unit (state or country) has no natural comparison group
Synthetic control constructs a weighted combination of untreated units that best replicates the pre-treatment trajectory of a single treated unit, serving as a data-driven counterfactual.
When applying cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) rather than cost-benefit analysis (CBA), the key distinction is that CEA:
Answer: Measures outcomes in natural units rather than converting them to monetary values
CEA compares programs by cost per unit of outcome (e.g., cost per life saved or test score point gained) without monetizing outcomes, making it useful when benefits resist dollar valuation.
The concept of 'regulatory budget' or 'regulatory cap' constrains agencies by:
Answer: Requiring that new regulatory costs be offset by eliminating existing regulatory costs
A regulatory budget requires agencies to offset the private-sector compliance costs of new regulations by reducing costs elsewhere, analogous to fiscal budget constraints.