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Policy design, implementation and analysis rarely generate much excitement, except perhaps among those of us who teach the subject. Yet recently two policies have been at the center of major political controversies in St. Paul: the adoption of rent control and the rollout in 2020 of St. Paul’s new $15 per hour minimum wage.
The story of both is how bad policy design often produces bad implementation, or conversely, how it makes it difficult to determine whether policies actually are effective and work as planned. The other story is in terms of how analysis needs to confront ethical questions about policy design and impact.
Policy design refers to how laws are made. It refers to the goals of laws, what one hopes to accomplish, and why. Implementation is the enforcement or administration of policies or putting them into effect. Analysis is examining policies to see if they are effective or working the way they were intended.
Proponents who drafted the rent control ballot proposal made numerous mistakes in their policy design. One, they instituted a delay in the effective date of rent control if it were adopted. They should have anticipated that such a delay would incentivize landlords to raise rents, perhaps significantly, prior to its effective date. That is happening now across St. Paul.
Two, the proposal thought little about implementation. Scenario building...
File photo of Vinod Kambli PTI Former India cricketer Vinod Kambli hasn't been in the best of health for a long time. But serious concerns over his health emerged a few days ago when a friend of h...