Beyond Administrative Tunnel Vision : Widening the Lens of Costs and Benefits

Choices in one sector or department of public policy, such as health, frequently produce costs and benefits in other sectors, such as education or the environment. In this article, I argue that administrators should not make decisions in ways that ignore effects on other policy sectors, and arguably – though more debatably – should not give special priority to the interests of their own sector. In Part I, I review contexts where administrators are directed to ignore or give a lower priority to effects on other policy sectors. In Part II, I lay out an argument that agencies should not ignore these effects (using an example from health policy), and consider potential responses to that argument. In Part III, I consider some strategies to remedy the problem of agencies giving insufficient weight to wide-scope costs and benefits