Policy Analytics, Modelling, and Informatics ─ Innovative Tools for Solving Complex Social Problems

This book provides a comprehensive approach to the study of policy analytics, modelling and informatics. It includes theories and concepts for understanding tools and techniques used by governments seeking to improve decision making through the use of technology, data, modelling, and other analytics, and provides relevant case studies and practical recommendations. Governments around the world face policy issues that require strategies and solutions using new technologies, new access to data and new analytical tools and techniques such as computer simulation, geographic information systems, and social network analysis for the successful implementation of public policy and government programs. Chapters include cases, concepts, methodologies, theories, experiences, and practical recommendations on data analytics and modelling for public policy and practice, and addresses a diversity of data tools, applied to different policy stages in several contexts, and levels and branches of government. This book will be of interest of researchers, students, and practitioners in e-government, public policy, public administration, policy analytics and policy informatics.

J. Ramon Gil-Garcia is an Associate Professor of Public Administration and Policy and the Research Director of the Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY). Dr. Gil-Garcia is a member of the Mexican National System of Researchers and of the Mexican Academy of Sciences. In 2009, he was considered the most prolific author in the field of digital government research worldwide and in 2013 he was selected for the Research Award, which is “the highest distinction given annually by the Mexican Academy of Sciences to outstanding young researchers.” Dr. Gil-Garcia is the author or co-author of articles in prestigious international journals in Public Administration, Information Systems, and Digital Government and some of his publications are among the most cited in the field of digital government research worldwide. His research interests include collaborative electronic government, smart cities and smart governments, digital divide policies, new public management, public policy evaluation, and multi-method research approaches.

Theresa A. Pardo is the Director of the Center for Technology in Government at the University at Albany, SUNY. She holds Research Associate Professor appointments in Public Administration and Policy at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy and in Informatics at the College of Computing and Information. Professor Pardo is a co-developer of the top-ranked Government Information Strategy and Management concentration at the University of Albany and is president of the Digital Government Society, a global multi-disciplinary organization of scholars and practitioners interested in the development and impacts of digital government.