Using Evidence to Inform Policy

by Pete Lunn, Frances Ruane

Overview

Using Evidence to Inform Policy is a unique examination of how evidence can be used to improve policymaking, especially in challenging economic times. There is a need for transparency in government and policy decisions. Research and evidence can help to provide this transparency, and Using Evidence to Inform Policy outlines how. However, the book also demonstrates the complexity of the relationship between evidence and policy, arguing that in most cases good policy cannot be determined by evidence alone. Using Evidence to Inform Policy demonstrates the breadth and value of the contribution that evidence can make to policy. It presents eleven studies drawn from recent Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) research projects, illustrating different aspects of the relationship between evidence and policy, and how these vary by policy area. Using examples, the book demonstrates how national and international research can be used to good effect in policymaking. The theme of how evidence can influence policy is examined with reference to Ireland and the international experience and in a wide range of areas, including the economy, public infrastructure, innovation, competition, the labour market, financial regulation, healthcare, housing, education, government spending, public services and earnings. Each chapter tackles a question that's relevant to policymaking now, for example, how to protect consumers of financial services; what is the public's perception of public services and their implications for public sector reform?; how to explain changes in earnings and labour costs during the recession; what is the evidence for providing economic security through competition and regulatory policy?; do active labour market policies activate?; how to boost innovation and productivity in enterprises. The book is relevant to all those taking courses in economics, sociology, political science, governance, social policy and Irish Studies at postgraduate and undergraduate level, as well as civil servants, politicians, policymakers, researchers and analysts in the public sector.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780717162895
Publisher:	Gill Books
Publication date:	09/06/2013
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	274
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Dr Pete Lunn is a behavioural economist, author and former BBC journalist, who joined the ESRI in 2006. He has also written for The Irish Times, Irish Independent, New Scientist and Prospect.
Prof. Frances Ruane, Director of the Economic and Social Research Institute, previously lectured in the Department of Economics in Trinity College Dublin. Having previously worked for the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) and the Central Bank of Ireland, and on numerous boards and governmental advisory committees, she has written extensively on Irish policy issues.

Read an Excerpt

Introduction

When and how can evidence inform policy? There is a sense in which the answer

to this question is obvious. Whatever the policy domain, few would dispute that

decision-makers are inclined to make better decisions when they have the

relevant factual information, understand the main underlying processes involved,

and possess reliable estimates of the likely outcomes associated with the options

under consideration.
For example, health policy benefits from evidence that measures how many patients are treated in each healthcare centre (hospital, primary-care centre, GP practice, etc.), that explains how the patients come to be treated in these different

centres, or that estimates the likely impact on the use of healthcare services of

changing the way patients pay for their healthcare. Similarly, transport policy

benefits from evidence that measures the demand for journeys, or that explains

how people choose their mode of transport, or that estimates the impact on those

decisions of a proposed change in service.
Furthermore, it is similarly uncontentious that ongoing policy development is likely to be improved by objective evaluation of the outcomes that policies generate. This is particularly the case if policies are readily open to alteration and

if there is a willingness to absorb lessons for and from other policy areas.

This potential for evidence to inform policy and to help evaluate existing

policies in order to drive improvements in policy design has long been recognised.

Indeed, arguments about how evidence should relate to policy are at least 250

years old. Back in 1747, the Scottish physician James Lind conducted what is

widely regarded as the first clinical trial, on the effects of citrus fruit as a cure for

scurvy. Since naval power was vital to the creation and preservation of the British

Empire and, at that time, more naval seamen were killed by scurvy than by enemy

ships, the new form of evidence generated a vigorous policy debate, one which

was not resolved for forty years (Bartholomew, 2002). The early application of

evidence to health policy – and disease control in particular – has contributed

significantly to the cessation of long-standing medical treatments that were

damaging rather than beneficial to health.
This tradition continued to develop in the nineteenth century. In Ireland, for example, the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland was founded in 1847 in the belief that statistics and economic analysis would provide scientific answers to the major problems of the time and in particular to the problems created by the 1840s’ potato famine (Daly, 1997). The Society’s journal provides a picture of the

different kinds of empirical evidence that have been presented over the following

sixteen decades, informing civil society and those with the power to react to the

findings. For example, the papers that laid the background to T. K. Whitaker’s

Economic Development were presented to the society in the mid-1950s. Furthermore,

Whitaker himself, together with other members of the society, was instrumental

in establishing the Economic Research Institute in 1960, whose defined purpose

was to provide evidence to inform policymaking in Ireland.1 Ireland was not alone

in this regard. Over the course of the twentieth century many governments in the

developed world established organisations with the explicit aim of improving the

quantity and quality of data (through their national statistical offices) and of

analysis (through funding research institutes and research groups) across major

policy areas. Thus, the concept of evidence-based policy is hardly new.

Yet the situation has changed since the 1990s. The digital revolution has

transformed modern data systems, methods of analysis and access to domestic and

international research output – greatly increasing the potential for more systematic

use of evidence to inform the policy process. An identifiable movement towards

evidence-based policymaking has emerged, the progress and potential benefits of

which are analysed by scholars of political science and public administration. In

addition, various conceptual frameworks have been developed that seek to analyse

how knowledge is managed at the interface between researchers and policymakers,

including the role of so-called ‘knowledge brokers’ (Mayer et al., 2004; Magnuszewski

et al., 2010). Politicians, public servants, researchers, journalists, campaigning

organisations and others with an interest in public affairs now place increasing

emphasis on research evidence; the context is one where greater transparency and

accountability are called for. Indeed, within a modern society, it is difficult to

argue that the process of policymaking, together with the political and public

debate that surrounds it, is not enhanced by the timely availability of relevant

objective evidence.
What is new in the recent period is the greater availability of high quality scientific evidence to inform policymaking and decision-making. The production of scientific evidence has expanded greatly. Where previously selective pieces of

data or analysis (sometimes of dubious quality) were used to make the case for or

against a particular policy action, when we speak today of evidence, and especially

research evidence, we mean careful and robust analysis based on established

statistical methods applied to more comprehensive data. When we refer to

evidence in this chapter, we have in our minds primarily peer reviewed, high

quality research evidence. This is not to say that other evidence may not also be

relevant to policymaking: rather, the intention is to focus on the particular form

of evidence that lies at the heart of discussions of evidence-based or evidenceinformed

policy.2 This includes both quantitative and qualitative evidence; the

defining characteristic must be the rigour of the approach. The expectation is that

researchers supplying policymakers with objective and high quality evidence,

coupled with well-informed and experienced policymakers seeking and commissioning

relevant objective research, should lead to better policy decisions and,

hence, better outcomes for society.
Even so, this idealised picture of the contribution of evidence to policy in a modern society is, quite simply, at odds with reality. While many researchers and policymakers might agree on the benefits of using evidence as a basis for policy in principle, in practice they find it much more difficult to engineer an effective meeting of minds. Moreover, there is great variation across policy domains. When

the interface between researchers and policymakers works well, it amounts to a

systematic, sophisticated and efficient exchange of information and perspectives

– although rarely one that is entirely without tension. When the relationship

works poorly, communication is one way, effective dialogue does not develop, or

the relationship breaks down, with sharply differing perspectives on either side.

Researchers sometimes perceive or find policymakers to be unreceptive to relevant

research, ignorant of key findings and concepts, anti-intellectual, and more concerned

with managing immediate political agendas than with developing policy

that will best serve society. For their part, policymakers can perceive or find

researchers to be excessively theoretical, ignorant of political realities and

institutional details, aloof, driven by their own agendas and really more concerned

with publishing papers than with helping to develop policy. Furthermore,

professional researchers and experienced policymakers, despite being highly

intelligent and very committed, frequently struggle to comprehend the view from

the opposite side of this divide, let alone to benefit from adopting the alternative

perspective offered.
As we discuss further below, policymaking requires much more than research evidence and must take into account values, contexts (especially institutional factors), implementation challenges, risk and uncertainty. We recognise that

decision-making involves balancing the findings of the research evidence with

the many considerations that are ultimately outside the realm where research

evidence can be of assistance.