physicaleconomics

Like a lot of people, I've become interested in the performance of public health bureaucracies over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. But while I've seen a lot of discussion of the specific flaws and failures of the FDA, the CDC, the WHO, etc., I haven't seen much discussion of the logic of bureaucracy in general. What I'm hoping to find, or at least to better understand why I can't find it, is a general theory of bureaucracy, in the same way that economics already has for people, firms and democratic politicians. Any time we want to explain what a person, a firm, or a democratic politician does, we say they are a utility-maximizer, a profit-maximizer, and a median-voter-grabber, respectively. These models aren't necessarily perfect, but they are a clear starting point for almost any analysis of the respective subjects. They offer a broad, general understanding consistent across many contexts and time periods. The power of these broad, general models is that they give a very clear starting point for analyzing problems and solutions to those problems. When individuals are choosing badly, change the incentives. When businesses are choosing badly, tax or subsidize something—change what's profitable. When politicians are choosing badly, change what voters want. These solutions aren't necessarily easy to design or implement. But it's nice as a base and a starting point. Having access to these kinds of very general explanatory models minimizes the kind of confusion that many of us may have felt watching the decisions of public health authorities—a sense of "Bwuh?!" When a person talks about giving back to the community but never donates to charity, I made not be happy with them, but I can understand it in terms of utility maximization. When a firm pollutes the air or makes a product with cheap, unreliable parts, I may not be happy with them, but I can understand it in terms of profit maximization. When a politician adopts an extreme position in the primaries and