Keep in Mind for Defended Opinions
For Econonomics 496, Health Economics.
- Be sure to state early on what policy opinion it is that you are
defending.
- I want to hear about the consequences for individual preferences of alternative policies. So I don't want to hear that you support a policy because it is "right," "just," "fair," etc. Nor am I interested in whether policies you oppose are "unconstitutional" or "illegitimate." Instead, tell me
- What two (or more) policies you are comparing? (A policy can’t be “good” by itself; it can only be better than another policy.)
- Who gets effected by the policy. (A policy doesn’t matter if no one is effected.)
- What are the preferences of people effected regarding those effects? (If they don't care, policy doesn't matter.)
- If needed, how do we weigh the consequences for some people vs. the consequences for other people?
- If you are treating health/medicine differently from
other industries or areas of life, explain what is different about health/medicine to justify such different treatment. For example,
- If you think government should stay out of health/medicine, but should intervene in the war and policing industries, say what the difference is.
- If you think government should intervene in health/medicine, but think it should stay out of the fashion industry (and not tell people what they can wear, for example),
say what the difference is.
Furthermore, you need to say why this difference makes a difference.
Yes, doctors tend to wear white coats, so they are different in that way, but to use this difference you'd have to say why white coats matter for the case at hand.
- Keep in mind these standard economic rationales for intervention.
- Externalities: Air pollution is an example. Problems can happen when things some people do effect other people, and those first people do not take that effect into account. If people can reasonably negotiate between them, such as via a shared relationship or organization (such as a marriage or firm), we expect them to take such effects into account.
- Asymmetric Information: Examples include adverse selection and the deadweight loss from a monopolist. Problems can happen when some people know things that others do not, and attempts to reveal or hide that information induce some important inefficiency or waste.
- Inability to Commit: An example would be a small country tempted to nationalize the phone industry after foreign investors build a phone network. Problems can happen when a person or organization can not prevent themselves from doing something in the future, and they would beforehand want to prevent themselves from doing this to avoid certain inefficiency/waste.
- Be clear about whether you are assuming people are “rational,” as in the usual economic models, or whether you are assuming they are “irrational” in some particular way.
- Cite your sources. You are not required to offer specific facts in
support of your position, but if you do you should say where they came from.
- If possible, offer a charitable explanation for why other people
disagree with your position. Saying that they are clearly idiots is
less persuasive than suggesting that they have forgotten to consider some particular important issue.
- If possible, offer compromise policy positions. Such positions accomodate the strongly held opinions of your opponents, while still giving you most of what you want.