Unintended Consequences Of Public Policies: A Systematic Conceptual Framework

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

1 Ph.D. Student of Public Administration, Faculty of Management and Economics, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

2 Professor of Public Administration, Faculty of Management and Economics, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

3 Associate Professor of Public Administration, Faculty of Management and Economics, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

4 Assistant Professor of Public Administration, Faculty of Management and Economics, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

5 Assistant Professor of Management & Planning, Management Studies and Technology Development Center, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

10.22059/jppolicy.2026.106383

Abstract

In the present era, due to the limitations of human cognitive capacity, complexity, uncertainty, and dynamics of social environments, unintended consequences have overshadowed public policies and challenged governance more than ever. This is while policy scholars have not addressed this concept in a coherent manner, and the research literature in this field is unable to explain the what, why, and how of this concept. Therefore, the present study seeks to create new insights in this field by identifying and understanding the conceptual structures of unintended consequences of public policies in the existing literature, and synthesizing them. To achieve this goal, after a systematic literature review and content analysis of selected studies, a conceptual framework of unintended consequences of public policies was obtained, based on four conceptual structures: conceptualization, factors of creation, evaluation, and factors of avoidance/reduction.

Keywords

References

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Iranian Journal of Public Policy
Volume 12, Issue 1
March 2026
Pages 260-287

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