Sowing Seeds of Change Informing Public Policy in the Economic Research Service of USDA (1999) / Chapter Skim
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7 Organization and Placement
7 Organization and Placement
Pages 139-146
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From page 139... ...
Maintaining both the internal resources for timely delivery of relevant concise information and the external scope of potential vendors needed to ensure the quality and credibility of information and analysis are the functions that drive the form, scope, and size of ERS. Ingredients for Effective Policy Analysis An effective research and information agency in support of public economic policy must acquire primary data, produce secondary data and other information 139
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From page 140... ...
In other cases, ERS research reports are descriptive presentations of secondary data. These reports are valued by a broad range of users as potentially useful inputs to policy analysis, and they can do much to facilitate effective economic analysis, but in themselves they do not provide analyses of the likely effects of alternative .
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From page 141... ...
Scope and Structure The substantive economic policy mandate of USDA, combined with the process of evaluation applied to the administration of ERS services, determines the scope and structure of ERS. A thorough evaluation of ERS, along the lines anticipated in this report, could greatly change the services supplied by ERS over the long run, and therefore the internal structure of the organization.
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From page 142... ...
RECOMMENDATION 7-2. The appropriate scope for ERS activities should be determined by the economic issues within the policy mandate of USDA, by the system of program evaluations described in this report, and by implementation of the principle of competitive supply of research and information in support of public economic policy.
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From page 143... ...
These lines of authority would not serve well research and information in support of economic policy under the model of competitive procurement of services by ERS advanced in this report, either. In the current organization, there is no position suited to deciding whether particular information and research services in support of economic policy should be procured from outside vendors, or, in the event that both ERS and outside vendors might supply services, whether or not ERS should be chosen.
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From page 144... ...
Process of Economic Policy Support in USDA The Office of the Chief Economist or the Assistant Secretary for Economics, in this recommended organization, requires individuals with a thorough understanding of current and emerging policy issues and strong abilities in framing research questions. The set of skills required for these staff people is quite similar to those needed on the staff of the president's Council of Economic Advisers and in the economic policy support agencies for cabinet departments previously
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From page 145... ...
Achieving an organizational structure that insulates the production of economic information and research from political considerations, while ensuring that this work will be relevant to the economic policy mandate of USDA, is a difficult but essential task. To the extent that this is done well, ERS will be more attractive to motivated and capable professionals as a place to work.
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From page 146... ...
In the production of information, research, and analysis to inform public economic policy, they include the principle of competition and the desirable attributes of quality, relevance, timeliness, and credibility. The operation, even the concept, of an agency that informs policy decisions with credible and relevant information but that is not connected to or informed by decision makers is vulnerable, indeed, it is fragile, as amply demonstrated by the history of ERS.
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