Political Economy and Public Policy

This is a study of the relationship between social science information and policy-making. It aims to present a comprehensive framework for understanding knowledge utilization. Professor Oh is able to test a set of hypotheses with a large empirical study of policy-makers at the federal and state levels of government. The sophisticated application of path analysis and other methodology allows for an examination of several alternative explanations of patterns of knowledge use. The distinction is made between various kinds of information as they are used in different areas of the policy-making process in government and also between various kinds of users and multiple stages of decision-making.