WHO'S AFRAID OF POLICY EXPERIMENTS?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Dur, Robert; Non, Arjan; Prottung, Paul; Ricci, Benedetta
• 署名单位: Erasmus University Rotterdam - Excl Erasmus MC; Tinbergen Institute; Erasmus University Rotterdam; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; IZA Institute Labor Economics; Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1093/ej/ueae090
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 538-555
• 关键词: political competition; ETHICS; opinion

摘要

In many public policy areas, randomised policy experiments can greatly contribute to our knowledge of the effects of policies and can thus help to improve public policy. However, policy experiments are not very common. This paper studies whether a lack of appreciation for policy experiments among voters may be the reason for this. Collecting survey data representative of the Dutch electorate, we find clear evidence contradicting this view. Voters strongly support policy experimentation and particularly so when they do not hold a strong opinion about the policy. In a subsequent survey experiment among a selected group of Dutch politicians, we find that politicians conform their expressed opinion about policy experiments to what we tell them the actual opinion of voters is.