How to Write a Business Case in Economics and Public Policy: A Guide for New Case Writers

Economics and public policy offer rich material for case writing, from inflation and trade policy to regulation, sustainability, competition, public debt, and market design. But in this discipline, a timely issue is only the starting point.

A strong economics or public policy case needs a decision maker facing real constraints: political pressure, regulatory limits, competing stakeholder interests, incomplete data, or a deadline that forces action. Those pressures are what turn a broad policy topic into an impactful business case.

For new case writers, the first shift is to move from the issue to the decision. Students should be placed inside a moment where markets, institutions, government, and stakeholder interests shape what the protagonist can realistically do next.

Start with the decision maker

Many economics and public policy topics begin at a high level. A writer may be interested in inflation targeting, trade disruption, environmental regulation, health-care policy, or public debt. To become a strong case, that issue needs to move into the hands of a decision maker facing real pressure.

Tulsi Jayakumar, an award-winning case writer and professor in economics and public policy at SPJIMR, said the strongest cases are built around real trade-offs. “The most engaging economics and public policy cases are built around genuine trade-offs where reasonable people, armed with the same data, could land on different decisions,” she said.

For Jayakumar, the craft lies in finding the person with authority, constraints, and a deadline. “A ‘broad policy issue’ only becomes a case when you can identify the individual (a regulator, a bureaucrat, a CEO facing a compliance deadline) who must make an irreversible call under real constraints,” she said.

Her case, Inflationary Targeting in India: Replace, Rejig, or Reaffirm Targeting?, shows how this works. Inflation targeting is a broad macroeconomic topic, but the case places students in a specific moment in September 2024. They take the role of the Reserve Bank of India Governor, who must decide whether to continue the Flexible Inflation Targeting framework or return to the pre-2016 multiple-indicators approach.

Students still need to consider monetary policy, growth, inflation, and broader economic indicators. But the analysis is anchored in one person, one decision, and one moment.

Jayakumar summed up the craft clearly: “look for the meeting on the calendar, not the trend in the data.”

Show how policy shapes the options

Economics and public policy cases ask students to see business decisions within a wider system. Market forces matter, along with regulations, political realities, institutional constraints, and public expectations.

Adam Fremeth, an associate professor of Business, Economics and Public Policy at Ivey Business School and an experienced case author and reviewer, said the strongest cases in this area are “built around decision points where market forces, government policy, and stakeholder interests intersect.”

Fremeth said many of his cases place protagonists in situations where policy has a direct impact on strategy. A firm may be entering a new market, investing in a regulated industry, responding to a policy change, or working with government and other stakeholders to influence an outcome.

“In these settings, the challenge is rarely technical,” Fremeth said. “Instead, it involves balancing economic opportunity against regulatory constraints, political realities, public expectations, and long-term strategic consequences.”

His case, Bruce Power: Diversifying into Nuclear Medicine, is one example. Bruce Power was considering an opportunity to produce medical isotopes, a move with significant social benefit. The opportunity depended on more than technology and economics. Leaders also had to navigate government negotiations, regulators, health-care stakeholders, Indigenous communities, and internal decision makers.

For Fremeth, the case works because it brings students into the difficult work of value distribution: who benefits, who bears risk, and what kind of support is needed to move forward.

Build a trade-off students can debate

Economics and public policy cases work best when reasonable people can disagree. If the answer seems obvious in hindsight, students have little reason to test their assumptions or defend a position.

Jayakumar said cases fall flat when “the ‘right’ policy is obvious in hindsight; the tension has to be real and contestable in the room, not just in the case’s rear-view mirror.”

That tension might come from regulatory trade-offs, fiscal choices, policy design, unintended consequences, or strategic responses to economic change. The key is that each option carries consequences.

Jayakumar’s case, Tackling the Elephant in the Room: Sustainability Under Strain, centres on the conflict between biodiversity conservation and human development around Kasungu National Park in Malawi. Protecting the ecosystem and protecting local livelihoods pull in different directions. No decision fully satisfies conservationists, local communities, and policy-makers.

Award-winning case authors Preeta George, a professor of Economics and Policy and Associate Dean of Executive Education at SPJIMR, and Monika Gupta, an associate professor of Economics and Policy at the same university, also pointed to regulatory trade-offs as especially useful for classroom discussion. They said these trade-offs “align very well with a theory or concept in Macroeconomics, which otherwise seems very bookish.”

“Students are able to appreciate the concept when we bring a real life dilemma into the class,” they said.

This is where economics and public policy cases can be especially effective. Theory becomes practical when students need it to interpret competing priorities, second-order effects, and the limits of any single solution.

Avoid writing a policy note

One common mistake in economics and public policy case writing is allowing the background to take over. Authors may care deeply about the history, model, or institutional context, but too much explanation can bury the choice students are meant to discuss.

Jayakumar described this as the biggest mistake she sees. “A case is not a textbook chapter with a protagonist bolted on,” she said. “The model should serve the dilemma, not the other way around.”

Fremeth made a similar point. “One of the most common mistakes is treating the case as a policy note rather than a decision case,” he said. “The policy context matters, but it should serve the decision rather than become the decision itself.”

This can be especially tempting in economics, where context often feels essential. Writers may want to explain the full regulatory framework, macroeconomic backdrop, industry history, institutional structure, and theory behind the issue. Some of that information may be necessary, but only if it helps students decide what the protagonist should do next.

Jayakumar said she uses a simple test when drafting: “if a paragraph doesn’t change what the protagonist should do next, cut it.”

That rule is useful for any case writer, but it is especially valuable in this discipline. Economics and public policy can invite expansive explanation. The case format requires discipline.

Use data to support judgment

Economics and public policy cases often depend on data, but more data does not always lead to better discussion.

Jayakumar said quantitative information should give students enough to build a defensible argument, “and not so much that the case becomes an exercise in spreadsheet forensics.”

George and Gupta said this is an important challenge because economics has “historically been a very data-intensive subject.” They said there is “always a temptation to load any work with excessive data.”

The goal is to include the numbers students need to understand the scale of the issue, compare options, and test assumptions. The goal is not to reproduce every available data point.

“Limiting data-related content in the case to what is required for the decision, per se, helps support a meaningful analysis,” George and Gupta said.

Write the case only this discipline can teach

A strong economics and public policy case should not feel like a generic business dilemma with policy language added in. It should use the discipline’s unique strengths.

These cases are powerful because they ask students to make decisions inside systems. They show how markets are shaped by institutions, how policy choices create trade-offs, and how leaders must act when economic, political, and social objectives do not neatly align.

For new case writers, the practical lesson is clear. Start with the person who must decide. Give that person a real constraint, a real deadline, and a choice that reasonable people can debate. Include the theory, data, history, and stakeholder context students need, but keep each piece tied to the decision.

Follow this process, and you’ll end up with an impactful case study that sparks meaningful debate.

When written well, an economics and public policy case helps students do more than understand the issue. It helps them practise judgment in the messy space where policy, markets, and leadership meet.

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