IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/revage/v20y1998i2p584-600..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Getting from Economic Analysis to Policy Advice

Author

Listed:
  • James T. Bonnen
  • David B. Schweikhardt

Abstract

Economists play several distinct but necessary roles in the process of translating economic knowledge from the discipline to use in policy decisions. Economists engaged in disciplinary research might legitimately deal with more simplified abstractions of economic problems in conducting their research, whereas those engaged in providing policy analysis and advice to policy makers might face different constraints on the types of analysis that can be used by policy makers. In the role of policy analyst or adviser, economists face a number of challenges and risks. Those preparing to engage in such roles should understand (a) the constraints that will be faced in using and communicating economic analysis to policy makers, (b) the limitations of economic theory in addressing policy issues faced by decision makers, and (c) the risks inherent in participating in the policy-making process. The economist entering the policy process must be prepared to present economic advice in a manner that is easily understood and communicated and be prepared to address dimensions of policy problems that might not comply with the standard assumptions of neoclassical theory. The policy adviser must also be prepared to deal with databases that are often inadequate for decision-making purposes, time constraints that preclude the completion of a thorough analysis, value dimensions of policy issues that might overrule the results of economic analysis, and the fundamentally different roles of the policy maker and the economic adviser in the decision-making process.

Suggested Citation

  • James T. Bonnen & David B. Schweikhardt, 1998. "Getting from Economic Analysis to Policy Advice," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 20(2), pages 584-600.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:revage:v:20:y:1998:i:2:p:584-600.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2307/1350010
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nelson, Robert H, 1987. "The Economics Profession and the Making of Public Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 25(1), pages 49-91, March.
    2. Vernon W. Ruttan, 1984. "Social Science Knowledge and Institutional Change," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 66(5), pages 549-559.
    3. Herbert Stein, 1996. "A Successful Accident: Recollections and Speculations about the CEA," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 3-21, Summer.
    4. Charles L. Schultze, 1996. "The CEA: An Inside Voice for Mainstream Economics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 23-39, Summer.
    5. Cairncross, Alec, 1985. "Economics in Theory and Practice," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(2), pages 1-14, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bryden, John Marshall & Mittenzwei, Klaus, 2010. "The Role And Importance Of Academic Freedom In The Policy Process," 50th Annual Conference, Braunschweig, Germany, September 29-October 1, 2010 93945, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA).
    2. Nanang, David M. & Ghebremichael, Asghedom, 2006. "Inter-regional comparisons of production technology in Canada's timber harvesting industries," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(8), pages 797-810, November.
    3. John Davis, 2018. "Communicating Economic Concepts and Research in a Challenging Environment," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(3), pages 591-605, September.
    4. Balmann, Alfons & Happe, Kathrin, 2001. "Agentenbasierte Politik- und Sektoranalyse - Perspektiven und Herausforderungen," German Journal of Agricultural Economics, Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, Department for Agricultural Economics, vol. 50(08), pages 1-12.
    5. Happe, Kathrin & Balmann, Alfons, 2008. "Doing Policy In The Lab! Options For The Future Use Of Model-Based Policy Analysis For Complex Decision-Making," 107th Seminar, January 30-February 1, 2008, Sevilla, Spain 6588, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    6. Babu, Suresh Chandra., 2000. "Impact of IFPRI's policy research on resource allocation and food security in Bangladesh," Impact assessments 13, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    7. Bryden, J. & Mittenzwei, K., 2011. "The role and importance of academic freedom in the policy progress," Proceedings “Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.”, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA), vol. 46, March.
    8. Happe, Kathrin & Kellermann, Konrad & Balmann, Alfons, 2006. "Agent-based analysis of agricultural policies: An illustration of the agricultural policy simulator AgriPoliS, its adaptation and behavior," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 11(1).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bonnen, James T., 1989. "Relevancy Of The Social Sciences In The Policy Arena: Implications For Agricultural Economics," Southern Journal of Agricultural Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 21(1), pages 1-10.
    2. Bruno S. Frey, 2000. "Was Bewirkt die Volkswirtschaftslehre?," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 1(1), pages 5-33, February.
    3. Ulf Papenfuß & Tobias Thomas, 2007. "Eine Lanze für den Sachverständigenrat? Plädoyer für eine differenziertere Analyse wirtschaftswissenschaftlicher Beratungsinstitutionen," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 8(4), pages 335-358, November.
    4. Yasushi Iwamoto, 2005. "Interaction between Monetary and Fiscal Policy and the Policy Mix, Theoretical Consideration and Japanese Experience," CARF F-Series CARF-F-043, Center for Advanced Research in Finance, Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo.
    5. Donihue, Michael & Kitchen, John, 1999. "The Troika process: Economic models and macroeconomic policy in the USA," MPRA Paper 22216, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Wolfgang Franz, 2000. "Wirtschaftspolitische Beratung: Reminiszenzen und Reflexionen," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 1(1), pages 53-71, February.
    7. Bruno Frey, 2006. "How Influential is Economics?," De Economist, Springer, vol. 154(2), pages 295-311, June.
    8. Brian Goff, 2010. "Do differences in presidential economic advisers matter?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 142(3), pages 279-291, March.
    9. Joseph E. Aldy & Robert N. Stavins, 2021. "Rolling The Dice In The Corridors Of Power: William Nordhaus’S Impacts On Climate Change Policy," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Robert Mendelsohn (ed.), CLIMATE CHANGE ECONOMICS Commemoration of Nobel Prize for William Nordhaus, chapter 1, pages 1-18, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    10. Marina Riem, 2017. "Essays on the Behavior of Firms and Politicians," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 73.
    11. Brinkman, Anthony P., 2003. "The Ethical Challenges and Professional Responses of Travel Demand Forecasters," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt9c3330tt, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    12. Jason Shogren, 1998. "A Political Economy in an Ecological Web," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 11(3), pages 557-570, April.
    13. Orphanides, Athanasios & Williams, John C., 2005. "The decline of activist stabilization policy: Natural rate misperceptions, learning, and expectations," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 29(11), pages 1927-1950, November.
    14. Athanasios Orphanides & John C. Williams, 2013. "Monetary Policy Mistakes and the Evolution of Inflation Expectations," NBER Chapters, in: The Great Inflation: The Rebirth of Modern Central Banking, pages 255-288, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. James Hite, 1987. "Rural people, resources and communities: An assessment of the capabilities of the social sciences in agriculture," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 4(1), pages 27-41, December.
    16. Gérard Grellet & Naîma Grellet, 1999. "Développement des marchés et coûts de transaction. Une critique des politiques économiques libérales," Revue Tiers Monde, Programme National Persée, vol. 40(157), pages 37-49.
    17. Enrico Colombatto, 2014. "Hayek and economic policy (the Austrian road to the third way)," Chapters, in: Roger W. Garrison & Norman Barry (ed.), Elgar Companion to Hayekian Economics, chapter 15, pages 343-363, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    18. Margherita Vestoso, 2018. "The GDPR beyond Privacy: Data-Driven Challenges for Social Scientists, Legislators and Policy-Makers," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-11, July.
    19. van Dalen, H.P. & Klamer, A., 2009. "Trading economics across the Atlantic : Jan Tinbergen for Milton Friedman," Other publications TiSEM 9ecb3de7-f6b6-437f-a957-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    20. RALPH C. d'ARGE & RICHARD B. NORGAARD & MANCUR OLSON & RICHARD SOMERVILLE, 1991. "Economic Growth, Sustainability, And The Environment," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 9(1), pages 1-23, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:revage:v:20:y:1998:i:2:p:584-600.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press or Christopher F. Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaeaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.