Implementing Empirical Economics into Policymaking

A crucial difference between policymakers and empirical economists is that while the former cannot wait, the latter want to take time to check the robustness of their findings. This is the reason why evidence-based policymakingEvidence-Based Policy Making (EBPM) (EBPM) is difficult to achieve. Another reason is that while a policy design improves as more empirical studies are conducted to vet it, such policy-based evidence accumulation is too costly and time-consuming for researchers despite its social desirability. This chapter considers how to accumulate policy-based evidence quickly to bridge empirical economicsEmpirical economics and policymaking better. It discusses three types of bridging: university researchers’ working full-time for a few years at a government office as a chief economist or staff, their teaching mid-career or would-be policymakers at under- or post-graduate programs, and policy think tanksThink tank’ coordinating university researchers, policymakers, foundations, and other stakeholders to fund and speed up policy-based evidence accumulation.