BOTEC Analysis blends policy innovations with evidence-based practices grounded in decades of academic and practical experience to help national, state and municipal regulators turn data into the insights needed to deliver solutions in the public interest.
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Governments worldwide have joined the fight to end cigarette smoking, but their efforts have sometimes yielded unintended consequences. Illicit trade in tobacco products is a serious and costly global problem that robs governments of revenue and strips regulators of the power to affect consumer behavior. Meanwhile, the risks and possibilities of alternatives to cigarettes are poorly understood. BOTEC uses a harm reduction lens to help governments understand how they can best serve their citizens.
Emerging cannabis markets around the world present opportunities for economic development and revenue, but also create potential threats to public health and safety. BOTEC works with governments to anticipate market conditions, shape regulations on production, sale, taxation, and consumption, and evaluate the effects of existing policies.
For over a decade, an epidemic of opioid misuse has ravaged the United States. In its wake, rates of misuse of stimulants such as methamphetamine and cocaine have also risen. BOTEC has studied the behavior of drug users and the characteristics of illicit opioid and stimulant markets for over thirty years. We advise government agencies such as the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and the High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) program on high-level strategy. We also design and evaluate program-level responses to specific substance misuse problems faced by practitioners.
State corrections facilities are fertile environments for testing policies that make human lives safer and more worthwhile. Yet, the agencies that manage those facilities are often too occupied by immediate practical concerns to implement dynamic changes, conduct empirical experiments, and offer analysis. BOTEC helps agencies identify problems in offender management and develop solutions rooted in evidence.
The United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, and most of the prison population is managed at the state level. Governments conscious of both fairness and cost-effectiveness have begun to build their capacities to safely transition incarcerated citizens back to communities. For reentry to be successful, returning citizens must be well-equipped to meet the challenges they will face in securing housing, employment, and personal development, all while meeting the conditions of their release. BOTEC works with governments to design pre-trail supervision, probation, and parole programs that work for both clients and supervision agents. We provide the training and technical assistance (TTA) and research partnership that help agencies not only develop programs that succeed, but also ground those programs in evidence so that the lessons learned can be shared.
Governments and corporations are increasingly concerned that their policies have effects that do not unfairly benefit or burden certain groups at the expense of the whole. BOTEC helps agencies and corporations see equity problems caused by their current policies and develop new policies that avoid those problems.
Access to affordable transportation options is an important social justice issue, and reducing carbon-intensive personal vehicle use is an ecological imperative. The emergence of app-based ride-share technologies and peer-to-peer car-sharing models have disrupted public transport and the automotive industry. But minority riders and those with disabilities are often discriminated against and under-served. BOTEC works directly with these firms to evaluate the performance of their services on key metrics to ensure that opportunities for discrimination within the system are eliminated.
New products and services created by emerging industries such as app-based ride-share technologies or regulated cannabis create environmental costs. Regulators need to understand these costs as well as any opportunities for ecological harm mitigation that innovation presents. With this understanding, regulators can develop policy frameworks that minimize risks while maximizing benefits. BOTEC works with both regulators and corporations to measure environmental impacts, measuring inflows and outflows under different scenarios. This information can then inform a discussion about alternatives, mitigation, optimal regulation and commercial procedures.
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