Policy mix: mess or merit?

Publication

Most policies consist of mixes, new interventions being implemented on top of already existing policies. Whether this is a good idea or not is often unclear: evaluating policy mixes is difficult, and a clear picture is lacking of how to move ahead.

This paper

  • screens and reviews the wider academic literature to define the concept of policy mixes;
  • discusses the justifications for using a policy mix;
  • explores the methodologies for evaluating them.

In defining a policy mix we make a distinction between policy objective mixes and policy instrument mixes. Justifications for policy objective mixes generally lie in the domain of distributional concerns and other political issues, whereas justifications for policy instrument mixes are mostly related to specific market, governance or behavioural failures.

This article is available on the publisher’s website via restricted access.

Authors

J. A. Bouma, M. Verbraak, F. Dietz & R. Brouwer

Specifications

Publication title
Policy mix: mess or merit?
Publication date
20 July 2018
Publication type
Publication
Product number
3360