RENT TEXTBOOKS

Praise for Meta-Analysis for Public Management and Policy

"In his usual rigorous but readable style, Evan Ringquist and co-author Mary Anderson have produced a tour-de-force on the topic of meta-analysis in public policy and management research. Meta-analysis is badly needed in the all-too-common situation when researchers have low confidence in summarizing the overall results of dozens of studies on the effectiveness of some policy. This book has a nice combination of conceptual overview, methodological details, and applications that will make it possible for researchers to conduct their own meta-analysis. It is tempting to require all graduate students to write a meta-analysis as a chapter in their dissertation, or include meta-analysis as a standard offering in the research methods curriculum of social science graduate programs. The more people that adopt Ringquist and Anderson's approach, the less resources will be wasted on conducting studies that do not contribute to cumulative scientific knowledge. "
—Mark Lubell
Department of Environmental Science and Policy
Director, Center for Environmental Policy and Behavior University of California-Davis

“Ringquist and his colleagues deliver value and add to canon of public management methods by delivering an analytical framework that makes the case for systematic research using the tools of meta-analysis. This book will be a must read for all committed to strengthening evidence-based research that improves public policy and management decision making.”
—David M. Van Slyke
The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs Syracuse University

“In Meta-Analysis for Public Management and Policy Evan Ringquist and his colleagues provide a lucid and practical roadmap for policy and public management scholars who use meta-analysis in their research. But this is more than a “how to” volume; it provides background on why meta-analysis is a potent means for accumulating and synthesizing empirical research findings, and shows how its use has evolved in recent decades. Specific applications of meta-analysis to long-standing policy and management debates are given, essentially providing an array of developed “templates” through which scholars and practitioners can assess how to approach different kinds of analytical problems using meta-analysis. Particularly valuable to me is the careful development and presentation of the necessary stages of meta-analysis, from conceptualization through data coding and bias assessment to advanced modeling. All of the statistical analyses can be conducted in Stata, utilizing readily available “.ado”  modules. I will use this book, both in research and in the classroom. Overall it is one of the most useful methodological contributions I’ve seen in some time.”
—Hank Jenkins-Smith
Department of Political Science Director, Center for Applied Social Research University of Oklahoma

“Meta-Analysis for Public Management and Policy conveys the considerable untapped potential of meta-analysis to strengthen and advance bodies of knowledge and evidence in public management and policy.  This book takes students and researchers deep into the methods of meta-analysis and details of their empirical application, without losing sight of the important policy questions and the implications of choices that researchers make in their empirical work for the production of evidence for public managers and policymakers. This book will serve as an excellent practical guide for those conducting their first meta-analysis, while at the same time supporting critically-focused consumption of existing meta-analyses and discussion of where the field can gainfully take this approach to enhance our research and knowledge bases. It draws in a range of valuable and important examples of applications of meta-analysis techniques throughout the book and rounds off with four full-fledged applications of the method. Although the book reaches out to an audience of public management and policy researchers and consumers of this research, it should be of interest to a broad range of applied social science researchers and students as well.”
—Carolyn Heinrich
Sid Richardson Professor of Public Affairs Director, Center for Health and Social Policy LBJ School of Public Affairs University of Texas – Austin

“Even for incredibly specialized techniques, public management and policy scholars have a multiplicity of methods texts from which to choose. Yet it is truly surprising that a strong guide to applied meta-analysis — a rigorous framework for the organization of empirical findings — has not been available.  Ringquist and Anderson provided just that with an accessible guide to sophisticated techniques.   Marrying an instructive text to a set of exemplary standalone studies, Meta-Analysis for Public Management and Policy offers unparalleled guidance for instructors and students and more than a little wisdom for seasoned scholars. It is destined to become the standard reference for our field.”
—Anthony Michael Bertelli
CC Crawford Chair in Management and Performance USC Price School of Public Policy USC Gould School of Law University of Southern California

“This comprehensive treatment of meta-analysis is an excellent guide for scholars and students in public management and public policy. The carefully done exposition demonstrates why meta-analysis should have greater use in the profession.”
—Kenneth J. Meier
Charles H. Gregory Chair in Liberal Arts Department of Political Science Texas A&M University     

“This remarkable book reviews the history of the use of meta-analysis in the social sciences, argues forcefully for its importance, value, and relevance for public managers, and provides one-stop-shopping for those who want to learn how to do it or understand how others have done it.  The detailed coverage of each step in the process allows a student to learn the technique completely while fully understanding the logic and intellectual goals of the enterprise.  Most importantly, the authors review techniques from a range of disciplines, drawing most of their positive suggestions from the field of medical statistics rather than the social sciences. The examples and applications, on the other hand, stem from the world of government and public policy. Four chapters provide new syntheses of research on individual policies using the techniques and practices introduced in the earlier chapters.  The result is original research, a strong argument for the value of meta-analysis in a field (political science and public administration) that uses it little, and a complete tool-kit for those who would want to apply these powerful ideas on their own. A very impressive and useful text.”
—Frank R. Baumgartner
Richard J. Richardson Distinguished Professor Department of Political Science University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

“Meta-analysis is a valuable tool for accumulating knowledge about how management matters from across a range of policy areas and disciplines. It is also an underused tool, in large part because of the lack of a comprehensive and useable guide on the topic. Ringquist remedies this problem by offering clear instruction on how to apply the technique wisely, as well as highly useful empirical demonstrations. The field of public management needs this excellent book.”
—Donald Moynihan Professor of Public Affairs University of Wisconsin-Madison

“Professors and students frequently face decisions about how deeply to invest in a statistical procedure, a ne