New Group to Sponsor Policy Study

A group of leaders in academics, law, labor and industry have formed a private council to sponsor detailed nonpartisan studies of national domestic issues.

The aim of the group, called the Council for Policy Evaluation (CPE), is "to provide a regular source of academic criticism and suggestion on policy issues to help fill out the arguments and fill in the numbers," Leonard M. Ross, executive director of the council and a teaching fellow at the Law School, said yesterday.

Papers

The council will ask interested scholars to write papers analyzing the problems and suggesting government policy alternatives in such fields as pollution control, health care and government regulations of private industry.

The council will review the papers and distribute copies to administration officials, congressmen and public interest lawyers.

However, it will not endorse the papers' recommendations or lobby for their acceptance by government officials. "We hope to escape the reputation of a maker of pronouncements," Ross said.

Among the members of the council are Harvey Brooks, dean of Engineering and Applied Physics; Benjamin Kaplan, Royal Professor of Law; and Joseph Rhodes Jr., a Junior Fellow.

Memorandum

According to a memorandum circulated among the CPE members, the papers will reflect an emphasis on economic incentives and the "variety of ways in which the Federal government can accomplish its objectives other than through direct administration, unregulated subsidies, or grants-in-aid."

The council will not pay writers for their papers. Ross said he hopes the proceeds from commercial publication of the papers will cover the council's printing and mailing expenses. He said the council is also seeking foundation support.

Five papers will soon be submitted to the council. Marc J. Roberts, assistant professor of Economics, is preparing an economics paper on alternative means of curbing water pollution. Ross and James Tobin, professor of Economics at Yale, are writing a paper on ways of remedying the distributional effects of inflation.