The generation and screening of alternatives in policy analysis

Warren Walker

Expert InsightsPublished 1987

Once a policy problem is deemed worthy of analysis, a policy study proceeds by generating various alternative courses of action that might solve or alleviate the problem. Large policy studies generally involve too many alternatives to examine each in detail, so they often include a step in which those that are clearly unattractive are screened out. This paper discusses how the alternatives to be evaluated in a policy study get identified and designed. It also describes an efficient structure for the screening of alternatives. The paper was prepared as a chapter in a book entitled Handbook of Systems Analysis: Craft Issues and Procedural Choices.

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Walker, Warren, The generation and screening of alternatives in policy analysis. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1987. https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P7313.html.
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