Sowing Seeds of Change Informing Public Policy in the Economic Research Service of USDA (1999) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Pages 1-12
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 1... ...
In early 1997, ERS requested that the Committee on National Statistics of the National Research Council convene a panel to assess the management and structure of the ERS research program and produce a report of general principles for improving the quality and effectiveness of research in an intramural social science program that must serve agency program needs. The panel was also asked to examine
|
From page 2... ...
The panel studied the history of ERS since the establishment of the BAE in 1922, examined the economics of the supply of research, information, and analysis, and considered the scope for potential change in ERS and similar agencies. The panel carried on extensive discussions with current and former administrators of agencies; conferred with current administrators and senior staff at ERS; consulted with clients of ERS; read ERS research reports, staff analyses, and publications; reviewed the relevant theoretical and practical literature; and carried on extended internal discussions.
|
From page 3... ...
The final category of service is intermediate and long-term research related to the economic policy mandate of USDA. This research reflects the diversity of the economic policy mandate of USDA, including, for example, economic incentives for potential participants in the Conservation Reserve Program, evaluation of commodity procurement for food assistance programs, analysis of the economic impacts of proposed changes in tariffs on agricultural products, and costbenefit analysis of conservation tillage.
|
From page 4... ...
The panel recommends that ERS systematically evaluate the services it provides. Formal program evaluation instruments should elicit from clients and potential clients their choices among alternative providers and potential providers of the services provided by ERS, and the attributes of the services critical to their choices, including prices.
|
From page 5... ...
The panel recommends that the mission of ERS should be to provide timely, relevant, and credible information and research of high quality to inform economic policy decision making in USDA, the executive and legislative branches of the federal government, and the private and public sectors generally. It should identify information and frame research questions that will enhance and improve economic policy decisions within the authority of the secretary of agriculture, organize the subsequent collection of information and conduct of research, and evaluate alternative approaches to policy problems.
|
From page 6... ...
In particular, the methods used by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Agricultural Research Service, and the National Research Initiative will not be suited to many ERS programs and should not be presumed to be appropriate to any. Expanding the universe of potential suppliers of research and information is essential to the success of ERS given the breadth, growth, and changing character of the USDA economic policy mandate.
|
From page 7... ...
Identifying and studying relevant policy problems before they emerge as political issues enhances credibility, but achieving such success on a regular basis is not realistic given practical limitations on resources. The most important practical consideration is to distance those who provide counsel to decision makers, like the secretary of agriculture, from those who carry out the research in support of their decisions.
|
From page 8... ...
Political support for the provision of secondary data, information, and accompanying analyses by ERS has been grounded in these considerations of equity. In the wake of the information revolution, valid arguments for the public collection and provision of primary data including increasing returns to scale and the pure public good nature of these data may or may not apply in the same way to secondary data and information.
|
From page 9... ...
Highly political requests should go to the Office of the Secretary or the Office of the Chief Economist. Staff analysts must also be closely involved in guiding the ERS research and information program, including the assessment of future policy questions, the framing of questions for investigation, and the organization and supervision of research, because staff analysts are the first line of contact with policy decisions.
|
From page 10... ...
These lines of authority would not serve research and information in support of economic policy well 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 could supply services, whether or not ERS should be chosen.
|
From page 11... ...
The same staff of the Office of the Chief Economist or the Assistant Secretary for Economics would be responsible for evaluating the program of research and information conducted externally and through ERS, for directing research and information projects, and for choosing vendors for research and information. ERS, in this recommended organization, would have primary responsibility for the policy relevance of research programs in its role as primary or secondary provider, would be responsible for the administration of internal research and information projects, and would have a direct interest in maintaining programs that are competitive with alternatives in the public, private, and academic sectors.
|
From page 12... ...
In the production of information, research, and analysis to inform public economic policy, they include the principle of competition and the necessary attributes of quality, relevance, timeliness, and credibility. The history of ERS amply demonstrates the vulnerability of an agency that informs policy decisions with credible and relevant information yet is not itself a political decision maker.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.