I’m glad to see that Interfaces is doing a special issue on doing good while doing operations research (OR). I’ve spent many rewarding years involved in policy analysis and forecasting related to energy markets, working in or for the US government. During those years, I’ve honed policy-analysis skills that transfer to areas other than energy. These skills have been useful in both my professional life and in my life as a citizen working on issues that affect Philadelphia, the city in which I live. Engaging in policy and program analysis on local issues is a high-value activity that can be both very rewarding and deeply frustrating. State and local governments do not have the depth and breadth of analysis skills that one finds in Washington, DC. Legislative decisions seem to be made mostly based on cost-benefit studies performed for organizations that profit from the legislation fund; these organizations have an obvious interest in overstating the benefits and underestimating the costs to the city and its residents. Consequently, the need for someone who can clarify the effects of policy choices is far greater than at the national level. At the local level, decisions relating to economic development and taxes are frequently made without a clear understanding of their consequences. Economic impact statements funded by interested parties are a ritualized cover enabling special interests to justify the benefits they are receiving at citizen expense. Consider sports stadiums. Whenever a team owner wants large subsidies for a new stadium, an economic impact statement is produced that counts the jobs constructing the new stadium will add. However, constructing stadiums has been shown to have no economic benefits (Baade and Sanderson 1997). Even so, politicians are susceptible to the argument that jobs are created because they can count the jobs in the new facility; however, the associated job losses elsewhere in the regional economy are statistical estimates—they do not have faces enumerating the people that the typical politician must see to believe the losses. In this commentary, I describe two economic impact statements that I have had the pleasure of attacking.
['Frederic H. Murphy']
Editorial: My Personal Benefits from Doing Good While Doing OR