Bottlenecks for Evidence Adoption

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: DellaVigna, Stefano; Kim, Woojin; Linos, Elizabeth
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Berkeley; National Bureau of Economic Research; Harvard University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/729447
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 2748-2789
• 关键词: selection

摘要

Governments increasingly use randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to test innovations, yet we know little about how they incorporate results into policymaking. We study 30 US cities that ran 73 RCTs with a national nudge unit. Cities adopt a nudge treatment into their communications in 27% of the cases. We find that the strength of the evidence and key city features do not strongly predict adoption; instead, the largest predictor is whether the RCT was implemented using preexisting communication, as opposed to new communication. We identify organizational inertia as a leading explanation: changes to preexisting infrastructure are more naturally folded into subsequent processes.