Feb. 05 - Feb. 09 2024; sixth week of the winter semester.

Data Analysis Tools

In our data and public policy class, we focused on the essentials of handling data for policy analysis. A key point was the approach to literature reviews: categorizing studies into distinct schools of thought.

We also discussed the practical skills needed for data management and analysis.

  1. SQL to manage datasets
  2. Python to do something with it
  3. Power BI to visualize it

As someone who is quite proficient in Python and has experience with Power BI, I appreciated the reminder of these tools' value in analyzing and visualizing data. Although I haven't coded in Python or used Power BI in years, the session rekindled my interest in possibly brushing up on these skills. I've never coded in SQL, but I'm now considering learning it to enhance my ability to manage large datasets more effectively.

Communicating Public Policy

In PPOL607: Politics and Strategy, we discussed the importance of simplicity and clarity of communicating public policy and the need to be mindful of local concerns and cultural norms. Effective strategies include leveraging trusted voices for advocacy and understanding the distinction between strategy (long-term plans) and tactics (immediate actions).

Lobbying is the process by which individuals and/or groups convey their interests to public office holders to influence public policy. Canada's lobbying industry is dominated by business and corporate interests, with sectors like fossil fuels doing the most lobbying. Preferences among business execs and government officials vary, with in-house efforts being favored for their technical expertise and policy influence, while consultants are generally reserved for logistics like meeting setup and intelligence gathering.

The effectiveness of these approaches remains unquantified, but democratic values call for a balance between private interest and the public good, promoting inclusivity and responsiveness. The call to action is clear: we must hold public office actions to rigorous standards, ensuring transparency and accountability. Public policy professionals must continually evaluate how laws and standards apply to their actions and the implications for their integrity and reputation.

Personal Reflection: Strategy v Tactics

Reflecting on the interplay between strategy and tactics within an organization, I've learned the importance of close alignment between the two. In my 5 years career within O&G, I carefully listened to leadership's strategic messaging which provided me with insight into the long-term vision for the organization. However, in one-on-one conversations with leaders, I often probed their long-term thinking and occasionally found a disconnection between the tactics employed and the overarching strategy.

This misalignment led me to believe:

  1. Middle management often didn't fully grasp the strategic direction due to their heavy workloads. They simply didn't have the bandwidth to absorb and act in accordance with the strategy.
  2. There seemed to be a general lack of time for reflection or a genuine evaluation of whether our day-to-day tactics were effectively advancing our strategic goals. I suspect this issue stemmed from a blend of limited time and perhaps a lack of interest, as roles focused on program evaluation and strategic assessment weren't always valued or prioritized.

This realization has reinforced for me the critical need for strategic understanding at all levels and the provision of space and respect for evaluative roles that ensure tactical efforts are in service of the organization's long-term objectives.

GDP, Social Welfare, and Voting Systems

In our PPOL609: Decision Analysis lecture we grappled with the abstract nature of GDP and its role in measuring economic production, but not utility or welfare. It is important to know the origins of GDP calculation, one of the many inventions of World War II. In 1940, John Maynard Keynes, published a pamphlet on “How to Pay for the War", where he described the use of GDP to measure a country's capacity to fund war. Thereby GDP does not necessarily align with social welfare—which considers the distribution of resources and well-being across society.

We explored different social welfare functions, including Utilitarian, Cobb-Douglas, and Rawlsian models, the latter based on John Rawls' concept of a "Veil of Ignorance." These functions aim to arrange societal welfare in a more equitable manner than GDP alone.

Voting, a method of aggregating diverse preferences into collective decisions, involves strategic interactions as individuals strive to see their preferences reflected in outcomes. We distinguished between ranked and cardinal voting systems, with the former being prevalent in Western democracies.

Kenneth Arrow's axioms set criteria to judge these voting systems, whereby no voting system can perfectly translate individual preferences into a complete social ranking without inconsistencies—this is known as Arrow's Impossibility Theorem. In practice, the axiom that often fails is the Independence of Irrelevant Alternatives (IIA), leading to issues like vote splitting, as seen in the 2015 Alberta Provincial Elections.

Alberta Climate Policy and Carbon Pricing

In our SDEV633: Energy and Climate Policy class, we explored Alberta's climate policy journey, highlighting key initiatives that underscore the complex interplay between policy and politics in the energy transition. Starting with the Specified Gas Emitters Regulation (SGER) in 2007, Alberta introduced the first carbon pricing mechanism in Canada, targeting large emitters to reduce their GHG emissions or face a carbon tax. The conversation evolved with the Climate Leadership Plan in 2015 by the newly elected NDP government, incorporating a broader approach with a consumer carbon tax, adjustments to large emitter pricing (transitioning from SGER to CCIR), a 2030 coal phase-out commitment, and renewable energy procurement (REP).

Carbon taxes, central to Alberta's climate strategy, aim to not raise revenue but to modify behavior by internalizing the social cost of carbon, making individuals and corporations accountable for the full impact of their actions. Despite the political contention surrounding carbon taxes, their objective is to foster a sustainable transition through behavior change, supplemented by strategies to mitigate their regressive nature, such as low-income rebates and adjustments for emission-intensive trade-exposed (EITE) industries.

I have explored Alberta's climate policy further with a briefing note that I will be posting once it has been graded.

Government Debt and Deficits!

In our PPOL 615: Public Finance class, we discussed government debt and deficits. Deficits refer to the annual shortfall when government spending exceeds revenue, while debt is the cumulative total owed by the government, including bonds and legislative obligations like pensions.

We discussed the principle that government should borrow only for capital investments and ideally balance the budget over the business cycle. However, we encountered conceptual challenges, such as defining 'infrastructure' and assessing the actual benefits for future generations. There's also the question of the real rate of return on public investments and whether a simple balanced-budget restriction may inadvertently increase budget volatility.

We discussed the debt-to-GDP ratio as a measure of a government's fiscal health and its ability to pay back creditors, as well as the conditions under which debt levels might become unsustainable. A key point was that a good fiscal anchor should be simple and transparent. The class concluded that navigating these fiscal concepts is crucial for sound government financial management and policy-making.

*Photo: Great Pyramids of Giza Giza, Egypt taken Nov/22 2021.

Summit photo