The obvious answer is that policymakers want research that supports their personal and political preferences. Conversely, policymakers do not want research that might pressure them to change their views.
But when this central truth is properly recognized, policy makers may have an overall goal but need to understand the details of how to achieve that goal and how to estimate the costs and benefits of different approaches. Situations often arise in which it is necessary to fill out.Comment from Jed Kolko. He just completed a two-year term as Undersecretary for Economic Affairs at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Kolko writes:
I have spent most of my career as an economist in the private sector and think tanks, conducting research in hopes of helping policymakers. However, I recently completed a two-year stint at the Department of Commerce, conducting research that may inform the efforts of the Biden-Harris Administration and the Department of Commerce.
And now that I look at this from the other side, as a consumer rather than a producer of research, I can say that most academic research is not useful for programmatic policymaking, nor is it designed to do so. Of course, I can only speak about the policy areas I worked on at the College of Commerce, but I believe that many policymakers would benefit greatly from research that addresses today's most pressing policy issues. Masu.
However, the structure of academia is not set up to produce the kind of research that many policy makers need. Instead, leading academic journal editors and tenure committees recognize research that pushes the boundaries of the discipline and makes new theoretical or empirical contributions. Additionally, most academic articles assume familiarity with the relevant academic literature, making it difficult for people outside of academia to get the most out of the literature.
The most useful research could instead come from regional Federal Reserve banks, nonpartisan think tanks, the corporate sector, and academics given the support, freedom, or job security to prioritize policy relevance. There were many. Generally, she falls into three categories:
- new economic measures
- Extensive literature review
- Analysis that directly quantifies or simulates policy decisions.
If you're an economics researcher and you want to do work that's actually useful to policymakers and that increases the influence of economists in government, aim for one of these three buckets.
The first item on Kolko's list seems to me to be most directly related to work in Commerce. However, two of his other points reflect themes that will be addressed at the Spring 2024 symposium. Economic Outlook Journal (where I work as editor-in-chief) writes about the topic of „how research informs policy analysis.“ There are four papers:
As with all JEP papers, these are freely available online, so a detailed summary will not be attempted here. However, a quick overview is as follows:
CBO staff will provide an overview of how CBO works, but the primary focus will be on specific questions in credit and insurance, energy and environment, health, labor, macroeconomics, and seven topic areas that CBO would like to explore further. is. National Security, Taxes and Transfers.
Cass Sunstein focuses on OMB Circular A-4, which governs how the federal government conducts cost-benefit analysis and is being overhauled in 2023. As he explains, the revised document includes „new directions on behavioral economics and nudges.“ About discount rates and their impact on future generations. About distributional effects and how to explain them. It also describes benefits and costs that are difficult or impossible to quantify. The revised document leaves many unanswered questions, including (for example) the valuation of human life, the valuation of the impact of morbidity, and the value of a child's life. ”
Wendy Edelberg and Greg Feldberg led the Financial Crisis Investigation Commission, which was authorized by Congress in 2009 in the aftermath of the worst episodes of the Great Recession and relies in many ways on economic research. Ta. For example, they write:
Based on these experiences, we believe that the best way to help researchers understand the situation of government employees is to not only describe research that has been done personally, but to look more generally at where the literature is located. We believe that it is important to explain this. Government officials need a framework for understanding the disagreements in the existing literature. Government reports, no matter how persuasive, are unlikely to fully incorporate one expert's worldview. Staff members benefit when researchers act as honest intermediaries, not only in their own research, but also in characterizing where there is agreement and where there is disagreement, and in clarifying areas of disagreement. You can get maximum profit.
Additionally, researchers need to think outside their own models if they are to help their staff pursue fruitful avenues of analysis. Of course, the real world is much more complex than theoretical or empirical models. Recognizing this, when researchers can brainstorm the relevance of their analysis to the problem at hand, staff can achieve maximum results. Government officials sometimes need numbers, even though they recognize the great uncertainty surrounding them.
Finally, Emily Olsen runs an organization called Open Philanthropy. The organization imposes tasks similar to undergraduate essay contests. If you had money to donate, how would you decide in a more or less objective way where to donate it? Will it have the greatest positive impact? The answer depends on how you value your income and health gains. It also depends on how much attention other people already have on a particular topic, which will affect the benefit of your particular contribution. As Olsen explained, open philanthropy seeks to elaborate the reasons for decisions, often based on available economic research.
One of the messages from JEP from these essays and Jed Kolko's comments is that the kind of economic research that is rewarded with publication in top journals and tenure at a university is more important to those who do the detailed work of the research. This means that they are often disconnected from advice. Policy-making institutions want to be available. There have been various attempts to present research results in more accessible ways, including my own editorial efforts. Economic Outlook Journal And in writing this blog. But ultimately, there is no substitute for academic economists who invest the time and energy to develop mature judgment and place their work in the broader context of big questions and other existing research.