CAPSTONE EXAMINATION QUESTIONS--SPRING 1999

Students may choose to answer either question in each set

Fiscal Policy Question Set (For students in the MPA Program only: MPA-IG students answer IG auditing or investigations question on the next page.)

1. Although the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 signals an effort by the Federal government to keep a rein on the deficit, it only made minor revisions to the Federal budget process. The last major act that changed the federal budget process was the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990. Please discuss the primary provisions in each of the following acts and analyze the major effects each act had on executive/legislative relationships in the federal budget making process.

The Budget and Accounting Act of 1921

The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974;

The Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 (BEA).

After considering how these Acts changed executive-legislative budgeting relationships, briefly discuss the problems that remain to be addressed and why you think these issues are important.

2. Although the next presidential election is two years from now, a number of potential candidates are already starting to campaign. One of the major issues the candidates will be addressing is the federal income tax system. Some think the federal income tax should be replaced with a national sales tax. Proponents of the change say a national sales tax would be easier to administer and would not discourage investment. However, opponents of the change believe that the national sales tax would only benefit upper income taxpayers and not poor and middle-income taxpayers. How would you evaluate the proposed change from the federal income tax to a national sales tax? Please use the following criteria in your evaluation.

Equity (both vertical and horizontal)

Administrative ease

Political implications

Economic impact

Revenue adequacy (including stability).

In your response, be sure to define each of the criteria and clearly state how each of the two taxes differ with respect to each criteria.

Inspector General Questions Set (For students in the MPA-IG Program ONLY)

1. Accounting plays a central role in the efficient allocation of resources in product and financial markets. Auditing has for years allowed accounting to play a key role by adding credibility to accounting functions. Today's global economy and the organizations that operate globally have become so complex and interdependent that new approaches to auditing must be developed. Auditors would use these new approaches to master, rather than simplify, the complexity of the global business environment of audited organizations. Such approaches may serve the auditor's primary assurance goal of providing a greater power to detect material misstatements while concurrently creating auditing efficiencies.

Discuss the modern-day auditor's need to obtain an understanding of the client's business and industry. Consider also how the auditor can use this understanding to assess audit risks and, further, to make effective judgements about the validity of the client's financial statements.

2. Describe and then compare the respective roles of the Federal Inspectors General and the General Accounting Office. Use the following questions as a basis for your answers. Your discussion should be a reasoned extension of the basic answer to any question.

What scope of investigative authority do the Inspectors General have? What other units of government relate to the Inspectors General and how do they help determine the mix of investigations, operational analyses, and fiscal audits that any given Inspector General pursues? To what extent does the personality and leadership characteristics of individual Inspectors General help determine this activity mix?

What other units of government relate to the General Accounting Office and how do they help determine the mix of investigations, operational analyses, and fiscal audits that the General Accounting Office pursues? To what extent does the personality and leadership characteristics of an individual Comptroller General help determine this activity mix?

How would you compare the effectiveness of General Accounting Office intervention and Inspectors General intervention in curbing fraud, waste and abuse in the Federal government.

Research Methods Question Set (For students in all programs)

1. One welfare initiative designed to reduce welfare dependency and welfare expenditures by government is that public assistance in some states is being given to young unmarried mothers only if they are living with their parents. Single mothers who are not living with their parents will not be able to collect federally funded public assistance.

If you were asked to evaluate whether or not the "living with parent" requirement reduces welfare dependency and ultimately welfare expenditures, how would you go about doing so? In your response, make sure to:

1. State your hypotheses.

2. Define your units of analysis and present your independent, dependent, and control variables.

3. Conceptualize and operationalize your independent and dependent variables, and at least one of your control variables.

4. Discuss your sampling methodology.

5. Discuss your research method, i.e., how you will collect your data.

6. What statistical tests will you use to test your hypothesis?

7. What ethical or political or other problems do you envision in implementing your research design?

2. The Housing Department in a major eastern city is attempting to improve the quality of the housing it provides, and to privatize a portion of its public housing stock. For six months, negotiations have been on-going concerning the sale of some facilities to private developers as part of a privatization initiative. The developers, who promise increased efficiency with leaner staffs, want to buy the best housing facilities. The Housing Department hopes to sell some of the poorer facilities and hopes that improved repair and maintenance operations will make these facilities more attractive to developers.

In an experiment designed to discover better approaches to managing repair and maintenance operations, the Housing Agency has, for the past year, allowed newly employed workers with excellent applicant records to volunteer to receive incentive pay for higher levels of performance. Workers have been allowed to withdraw from experimental work teams, which many workers have done in order to transfer to housing sites that appear "safe" from privatization.

The Housing Agency wants you to evaluate this experiment and provide an alternative design. In your analysis you must define the following categories of invalidity and explain why particular aspects of the existing experiment fall into each category.

Question: For each of the following research methods defects

selection bias or differential selection

history

experimental mortality

maturation

a) explain the defect in general, b) give an example of the defect from the evaluation plan, and c) explain how the example could invalidate possible evaluation findings. Then, d) design an alternative evaluation plan that solves these defects by using an experimental design.

VI: Policy Analysis Question Set (For students in all programs)

1. Policy analysts in the public sector face a daunting task in defining policy issues so that they become addressable problems. In the process of problem definition, analysts must deal with:

a. Agency executives and/or legislators who are sponsoring the policy analysis.

b. Interest groups and influential individuals associated with the policy area.

d. Obtaining and digesting available, relevant, and analyzable data on the policy issue

e. Recasting information from all these sources into a problem definition that:

1. Identifies a range of alternative solutions acceptable to decision-makers

Pick ONE of the policy issues below. Describe how you would proceed, step by step as outlined above (from a through e3), in converting that issue into an addressable problem.

Issue: Car stops by police that allegedly rely on racial/ethnic profiling

Issue: The remediation needs of a significant portion of incoming CUNY freshman

Issue: Women assaulted or killed by abusive spouses/domestic partners despite protective court orders

Describe each of the two frameworks you have chosen in terms of (1) authors identified with the framework, (2) the general approach to analysis embodied by the framework.

Then explain, with reference to each stage (from a through e3) in the problem-identification/ solution-generation process below, how each model would approach the specific stage.

a. Judging the interest of the public, agency executives and/or legislators in a policy area.

b. Assessing the influence of interest groups and individuals associated with a policy area.

d. Obtaining and assessing data on a policy issue's impact on community, state or nation

e. Framing information from all these sources into a problem definition that:

1. Identifies a range of alternative solutions acceptable to decision-makers