For decades, the use of vouchers has been widely debated. But often lost in the heat of debate is the fact that vouchers are another tool in the government's tool chest, a restricted subsidy that falls somewhere between the extremes of cash and direct government provision of services. This volume, which grew out of a conference sponsored by the Brookings Institution, the Urban Institute and the Committee for Economic Development, offers a framework for the comparative analysis of specific policy issues related to vouchers. It contains 16 essays, which address the economics, politics and legal issues of voucher use, and explore how vouchers are employed in the USA and abroad for education, child care, job training, housing and health care.