Does the US government spend too little or too much on child care? How can education dollars be spent more efficiently? Should the government's role in medical care increase or decrease? In this volume, social scientists, lawyers and a physician explore the political, social and economic forces that shape policies affecting human services. Four studies of human-service sectors - child care, education, medical care and long-term care for the elderly - are followed by six cross-sector studies that stimulate new ways of thinking about human services through the application of economic theory, institutional analysis and the history of social policy. Seeking to shed light on the tension between individual and social responsibility, this book should appeal to economists and other social scientists and policy-makers concerned with social policy issues. The contributors include Kenneth J. Arrow, Martin Feldstein, Victor Fuchs, Alan M. Garber, Eric A. Hanushek, Christopher Jencks, Seymour Martin Lipset, Glenn Loury, Roger G. Noll, Paul M. Romer, Amartya Sen and Theda Skocpol.