Nearly everyone has an opinion about policies and the political processes that produce them. This, however, does not a policy analyst make. Policy analysis, an emerging interdisciplinary specialty, falls under the umbrella of general social sciences as well as within the disciplines of economics, political science, and sociology. As another form of knowledge development, policy analysis requires systematic forms of inquiry and evaluation. Some of the most prevalent tools include needs assessment, cost–benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, outcome studies, case studies, and meta-analysis. Policy analysis is done in a variety of settings, by a wide range of people from diverse backgrounds with increasingly sophisticated research skills, knowledge bases, and informational technologies. Policy analysis is opinion-making raised to professional status.

This entry is a brief overview of policy analysis and its relationship to social policy, its intellectual roots, and an indication of its major research methodologies. It reviews who does policy analysis and where its products can be found.

Policy analysts create opinions; their advice is used to influence policies. Bona fide policy analysts are knowledgeable about the policy realm and usually have quantitative methodological skills. In addition, policy analysts often are well versed in substantive issues that policies address. The tools of policy analysis are applied to substantive issues and policies in a particular arena. People who are involved in influencing and making policy use advice from policy analysts to choose among many possible policy alternatives. The products of policy analysis are among the many factors used to create, influence, stymie, reform, alter, revise, or change policies at all levels of government and in the private sector.

Policy analysts usually focus on formal written policies that emanate from government institutions—in short, they focus on public policy. Although many policy arenas, such as industrial or transportation policies, affect social welfare, the focus of this entry is social policy, which itself has broad and flexible borders (DiNitto, 1991; Jansson, 1994; Prigmore & Atherton, 1986; Trattner, 1989). Social policy can be viewed as attempts by government to guarantee some minimum standard of living for citizens in domains such as social insurance, public aid, health and mental health care, education, housing, and personal social services (DiNitto; Kahn, 1964; Prigmore & Atherton).

Policy analysis has increasingly involved the use of social sciences methodologies to describe and perhaps to prescribe the processes and content of policies (McCall & Weber, 1983). Although policy analysis involves the use of some fundamental social sciences research methodologies, the more technical or quantitative methodologies (that is, multiple regression, cost–benefit analysis, and trend analysis) require specialized knowledge to understand and use and are rarely covered in the training of most master's-level social workers.

The ethical dimensions of giving advice to people in power who can actually use it to wield change is a valid consideration of those engaged in policy analysis. Some policy analysts believe that the products of their labors can be purely objective; others adopt the values of the person soliciting their opinions, and still others apply specific values to the issue at hand (Jenkins-Smith, 1982). Policy analysis is, after all, a political activity (Weimer & Vining, 1992). Determining the relative desirability of policies and their implications is rarely an empirical matter; such decisions are more often ethical or ideological (Wright, 1992). Hagen and Davis (1992) pointed out that policy analysts highlight the importance of policy initiatives fitting into existing societal values. The explication of values becomes increasingly important in choosing among competing options (Caputo, 1989).

Policy analysis is carried out by people from many disciplinary and professional backgrounds and falls under the umbrella of general social sciences as well as within the disciplines of economics, political science, and sociology. It is encompassed by an intellectual undertaking dubbed the “policy sciences” (Lerner & Lasswell, 1951). Perhaps because of the multitude of academic and disciplinary backgrounds of its adherents, policy analysis is developing into an integrated, interdisciplinary enterprise (Croston, Fellin, & Churchill, 1987; Cunningham & Dunn, 1987). As a result, its disciplinary boundaries are becoming obscure, and its methodologies and knowledge bases are merging. These developments simultaneously enrich policy analysis and make its precise definition difficult. Policy analysis even has its own jargon; the media refer to those who practice it as policy “wonks.” Within the emerging field of policy analysis, even jack-of-all-trade policy analysts disagree about the boundaries of this slippery term. Another source of imprecision is that the object of policy analysis—that is, policy—is also a dynamic, constantly changing phenomenon.

Considering the practical consequences of policy changes on social work and its clients, social workers should be well represented among policy analysts; surprisingly, they are not. Relatively few social workers identify themselves as policy analysts. In 1991 fewer than 1 percent of NASW members reported having such jobs (Gibelman & Schervish, 1993); even fewer identified themselves as involved in planning.

In general, policies mediate relationships within and among three main arenas of modern life: (1)the government, (2) the economy, and (3) private life. Each of these institutions is complicated, multilayered, and dynamic. Government expands and contracts, what transpires in the market changes over time, and the boundaries of private life are in constant flux. Because the boundaries overlap, some aspects of life fall into more than one arena. Which aspects of life fall under the institutional reach of government, the marketplace, or private life are constantly shifting. Policies can structure the relationships within and among each arena. The recent federal parental-leave legislation is a cogent example. This policy allows parents to take time off to care for a new baby in their family, enhancing their ability to balance work (that is, the market) with family (private life) through government intervention (creation, implementation, and eventual evaluation of the legislation). The passage of this legislation was accomplished through extensive policy analysis.

When boundaries among government, the market, and private life are debated, the functions and structures of policy are redrawn and revised. Unintended consequences of policies are recognized; old policies are examined and reevaluated; bad ones are revoked; and new policy solutions are formulated, tested, and compared. The products of policy analysis help illuminate which policies should change and how these changes might reverberate throughout all aspects of modern life. By showing “what if,” “how,” or “why,” policy analysis sheds light on the foreseeable consequences.

Weimer and Vining (1992) defined policy analysis as “client-oriented advice relevant to public decisions and informed by social values” (p. 1). Offering policy advice is as much art as craft (Wildavsky, 1987), and the timing of the effort can be crucial to its success (Kingdon, 1984). Policy analysis refers both to a set of technical skills used to describe, assess, and influence social policies and to a perspective about what government should do that is based on an assessment of the circumstances and potential for interventions to make things better.

Policy analysis, therefore, requires both knowledge and skills. Among them are the ability to gather, organize, and communicate information when time and access are limited; a perspective about government's role in private affairs; technical skills, primarily in economics and statistics, to assemble and interpret data; working knowledge of political activities and organizational capacities in the policy realm; and an ethical framework to guide one's relationship to the policy analysis client (Weimer & Vining, 1992). Policy analysis knowledge and skills can be used in all stages of policy process, from policy formulation (Michel, 1991) and implementation (Bardach, 1977; Castellani, 1992; Nakamura & Smallwood, 1980) to policy evaluation (Haugh & Claxton, 1993; Haveman, 1987–1988; Rochefort, 1993).

Social planning requires some policy analysis (Faludi, 1973; Friedmann, 1987; Kahn, 1969; Mayer, 1985). Whereas policy analysis tends to be a pragmatic adjunct to policy-making—professional advice given to decision makers—social planning usually is more comprehensive than policy analysis; it covers the entire cycle of problem definition, proposal development, decision making, planning and program design, and evaluation (Tropman, 1987). Policy analysis skills can be used by planners at each stage of a planning procedure, making the line between social planner and policy analyst difficult to draw.
The field of policy analysis has its intellectual roots in a number of social sciences disciplines. Economists view social policies predominantly from the market perspective. They are concerned with allocation of resources—usually money—among the government, the market, and private life. They might analyze tax revenues and transfers in efforts to make these aspects of policy as efficient and equitable as possible (for example, see Garfinkel, 1982).

Political scientists view policies predominantly from the government realm because they are interested in how government operates at various levels and how government policies affect the market and private life. Few policy analysts today fail to recognize the influence of the political context on the development and implementation of public policy (Gummer, 1990; Kaufman, 1981; Lipsky, 1980; Wilson, 1989).

Some sociologists explore how social policies influence social institutions and social behavior. The subfield of political sociology explores the link between government and society. Social policies serve as one important link in this relationship (Demerath, Larsen, & Schuesser, 1975). Sociologists have been particularly active in developing methodologies to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of social policies and programs (Rossi & Freeman, 1993).

Other people from diverse backgrounds also engage in policy analysis. Historians have been adept at identifying the broad cultural and contextual factors that influence policies. People who are concerned about children have given extended attention to family and health policy (National Commission on Children, 1991). Because social policies are promulgated through laws, regulations, and guidelines, they often entail legal analysis and challenge (Cooper, 1988; Glendon, 1989; Minow, 1990; Stein, 1978).

Because policy analysis covers such a broad array of skills and foci and has evolved from diverse disciplinary bases, there are many methods of doing it, each with its own focus and purpose. Almost every method of social scientific inquiry has been used to describe, explain, and analyze social welfare policies and their effects. In a sense, policy analysis has no epistemology or methodology of its own; it is a hybrid field, defined by the objects of study rather than by any theory or method of inquiry. Consequently, any list of policy analysis methods will be incomplete.

Policy analysis can explore one policy, compare two or more policies with each other, or model the future implications of a variety of different policy changes (Singer & Manton, 1993). Policy analysis can examine one stage in policy development or can look across all stages of policy, from design to implementation and evaluation. Sometimes policy experiments are possible. The experimental designs, which strengthen the internal validity of the research, allow policy analysts to more confidently determine whether differences found between policies occurred by chance rather than by intention. Other designs, such as quasi-experimental or nonexperimental studies, are the only way to find out which policy option is the “best.” The following is a review of the most prominent methodologies used in policy analysis to describe, analyze, and compare policies.
Needs Assessment
Social policies address problems. First, to address problems sensibly or to assess the outcome of ameliorative efforts, the policy analyst identifies the nature, scope, and extent of the problems. He or she accomplishes an assessment of the extent of need in a variety of ways, through different methodologies (Rossi & Freeman, 1993). He or she may document the nature of the problem through analysis of existing information found in the published and unpublished literature, databases such as the U.S. Census or the Current Population Survey, agency records, specially conducted social surveys of individuals or households, or interviews with key experts. The policy analyst can use such information to describe the current state of need and to forecast likely needs (Rossi & Freeman, 1993).

Cost–Benefit Analysis
Cost–benefit analysis, developed largely by economists, is an approach that attempts to relate the direct and indirect costs of social policies and programs to the direct and indirect benefits of those policies (Weimer & Vining, 1992). Cost–benefit analysis requires that both the costs and the benefits of policies and programs be calculated in monetary form. This is frequently difficult to do, because policy analysts are often unable to give a precise dollar figure for saving a life, strengthening a family, or helping a child feel less depressed. The ethics of quantifying such aspects of life are another aspect of this methodology that has been receiving attention (Buxbaum, 1981; Copp, 1985; Zerbe, 1991). Research examples can be found (Weisbrod, 1982), as well as guidance on the how-tos (Gramlich, 1990).

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
Cost-effectiveness analysis looks at the costs of different policies in achieving the desired policy results (Weimer & Vining, 1992). Unlike cost–benefit analysis, this methodology does not require the monetization of the benefits of each policy. Although policy analysts may not know the dollar value of certain benefits, they can compare which policy or program costs less to achieve the same desired outcome, regardless of monetary value of the expected benefits.

Outcome Studies
One can assess the effectiveness of a policy without knowing the policy's cost or monetizing the benefits. Outcome studies can document the comparative effectiveness of different policy alternatives. Using conventional quasi-experimental and experimental research designs, policy analysts are able to assess the extent to which some policy intervention has had the intended impact on the social problem it was designed to address. Outcomes can be measured in many different ways, including through the use of psychological and social measures of individuals; the examination of trends in social indicators, such as the poverty thresholds, crime, or mortality rates of a given population or area; or the study of the behavior of groups and organizations.

Case Studies
Many studies of social policy can be described as case studies or as comparative case studies (Yin, 1993). Case studies involve the systematic and detailed description and analysis of the formation, implementation, and evaluation of specific social policies. Examples include analyses of the War on Poverty initiative (Moynihan, 1970), federal revenue sharing (Terrell, 1976), comparative efforts of Western nations to care for children and families (Kamerman & Kahn, 1991), and the impact of crime policy on inner-city drug markets (Reuter & MacCoun, 1992).

Meta-analysis
Meta-analysis is a quantitative method of summarizing the results of existing outcome research. Rather than being a method of gathering new information, meta-analysis involves a systematic way of collating and analyzing existing research literature and findings. It is commonly used to summarize an extensive literature on the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic interventions and is useful whenever an extensive group of quantitative studies of the outcome of policy or program interventions must be examined (Light & Pillemer, 1984; Wachter & Straf, 1990). Meta-analysis can provide guidance to policymakers in the early phases of policy development by summarizing existing quantitative studies and can assist them after a series of policy outcome studies have been conducted (see, for example, Miller & Miller, 1992).

A variety of other sophisticated approaches are used to study policy, including microsimulation techniques (Garasky & Barnow, 1992) and multiple regression (Elliot & Krivo, 1991; Gormley, 1991). As with any methodology, the quality of the results is only as good as the data being used. Quantification may obscure poor data and mislead those who do not possess the increasingly technologically challenging skills needed to understand the products of policy analysis.

WHO DOES POLICY ANALYSIS?
There are no standard eligibility requirements, certification exams, or required specific sequences of courses to become a policy analyst. That is not to say that no skills and experience are necessary. Most professionals who do policy analysis have backgrounds in the social sciences and have a particular interest in some substantive policy area (McCall & Weber, 1983). Policy analysts include economists, political scientists, historians, education specialists, psychologists, urban planners, sociologists, and social workers. Other practitioners of policy analysis have advanced degrees specifically in public policy from university graduate programs that focus on the field. Other professionals, including social work managers, planners, and supervisors, public interest lawyers, legislative assistants, and journalists, conduct policy analysis as part of their work.
Because it has no single disciplinary base or accrediting institution, the field of policy analysis is truly interdisciplinary in origin and practice. Policy analysts borrow, import, synthesize, and create techniques and methodologies from a variety of fields. Because of this rich diversity, policy analysis as a field continues to evolve. Although social policy, social planning, and policy analysis are not exclusive social work arenas, social workers have contributed to the growth and development of each, albeit on a limited basis.

Policy analysts are employed by many types of organizations: universities, private think tanks, advocacy organizations, social services institutions, government agencies, and political offices. Among the private nonprofit organizations that conduct policy analysis relevant to social welfare are the Urban Institute, Brookings Institution, American Heritage Foundation, Rand Corporation, Institute for Research on Poverty, Children's Defense Fund, the National Center for Children in Poverty, Child Trends Inc., Economic Policy Institute, and Center for the Study of Social Policy. The policy analyses that many of these organizations sponsor are funded by grants from private foundations and from government grants and contracts.
Other private nonprofit organizations carry out policy analysis on an occasional basis when a particular issue is of special importance to their membership. For example, organizations such as NASW, the American Medical Association, and the Urban League will conduct policy analyses so that they can influence the course of legislation in areas of their concern. Many other smaller organizations hire private consultants to assist them in collecting, organizing, and analyzing information regarding the impact of policies on their constituents.

The federal government is a major producer of policy analysis. Elected and appointed officials constantly call on government agencies to describe and justify what the officials do and how they might be able to do it better. Among the important government agencies that engage in policy analyses are the Congressional Budget Office, which functions as the policy analysis arm of Congress, and the General Accounting Office, which provides policy analyses on areas of interest as requested by various government officials. In addition, each federal department has its own policy analysis group ready to assist the staff in gathering and analyzing information to evaluate, implement, reform, or develop policies. Since 1946 the president has had an economic and monetary policy analysis group: the Council of Economic Advisors. State and local governments also hire policy analysts and conduct policy analyses to assist their own departments, although not as extensively as the federal government.

WHERE TO FIND POLICY ANALYSES

The products of policy analysis are contained in private and public reports, journal articles, and books. Public reports can usually be obtained from the sponsoring agency or department, often for a modest fee.

More than 30 professional journals are geared toward policy analysis (Wright, 1992). Some of the ones that regularly publish reports relevant to social policy are Policy Sciences, Journal of Human Resources, Administrative Science Quarterly, Public Administration Review, Journal of Public Policy, and American Journal of Public Health. Many consider the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management to be the preeminent journal in this evolving field; the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management sponsors it, and membership reflects the interdisciplinary nature of policy analysis. Although these journals frequently include analyses of social policy, one can find useful articles in many other more specialized journals that cover substantive fields, such as health, children, criminal justice, housing, employment, and education. Articles that include policy analysis appear regularly in many social work journals, especially in Social Work, Social Work Research, Social Service Review, and Children and Youth Services Review.

Social workers are involved in social policy and policy analysis, albeit usually indirectly. At each step in the social policy process (as summarized by Tropman, 1987), social workers and their professional organizations may be involved in assembling information relevant to these policy processes and in attempting to influence the course of events. Unlike those based primarily in academic disciplines, social workers often see firsthand what services are needed, and they see the intended and unanticipated consequences of existing social policies on their clients. Social workers can influence social policy in their roles as policy experts, researchers, advocates, lobbyists, managers, community organizers, planners, and clinicians. Some social workers contribute to this emerging interdisciplinary field; others work on developing a unique social work approach to social policy and policy analysis, referred to as “policy practice” (Jansson, 1984, 1994; Wyers, 1991). Social workers can develop their own approach, but they risk being ignored by policymakers. Fortunately, there is a lot of middle ground between these two approaches, ground that is important for the future of the social work profession. It is certainly an area worth exploring.
Policy analysis is a tool that social workers can wield to improve social policies. It is one important way they can make their voices and the voices of their clients heard among the din of others with professional opinions.

Susan D. Einbinder, PhD, is assistant professor, University of Southern California, School of Social Work, Los Angeles, CA 90089.

For further information see
Advocacy; Community Needs Assessment; Economic Analysis; Federal and Administrative Rule Making; Planning and Management Professions; Policy Practice; Public Social Services; Research Overview; Social Planning; Social Welfare Policy; Social Work Profession Overview.

Key Words
policy analysis
policy-making
policy research
social planning
social policy