Social Science Methods and Government Effectiveness

Publication Date: July 2009

Publisher: Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government

Author(s): Richard P. Nathan

Research Area: Social conditions

Keywords: Policy implementation; Research methodology; Federal government

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

The proposition of this working paper is that social policy researchers should assign higher priority to institutional studies. My argument begins with a statement of what I consider to be the undue emphasis of domestic public policy research on classical experimental studies. I want to expand on the recommendation for greater emphasis on institutional studies with an example from a field of public policy that is currently hot and critical - research on the operations of financial markets.