Principles of Public Policy Practice

Abstract

Presents and demonstrates some principles of public policy practice, explaining why public policy should be designed to maximize the ex ante interest of the "representative individual" and highlighting the importance of a system perspective in the design and consideration of public policy. Discusses what makes good public policy; human nature and public policy; institutional foundations for a just society; health care delivery and financing; legal aid and justice; bank deposit insurance; moving toward an optimal public pension scheme; the risks of monetary crises; savings investments, bubbles, and financial crises; transparency and its relevance to macroeconomic risk management; the optimal size of the government; education policy; housing; the social safety net and redistribution; economic ecology and the case of the Great Depression; economic ecology and Hong Kong's plunge into deep recession in the wake of the Asian financial crisis; and public policy in the new millennium. Ho is Director of the Center for Public Policy Studies, Lingnan University. Index.