American Economic Review · 2024 · Jorge García Hombrados、Marcel Jansen、Ángel Martínez、Berkay Özcan、Pedro Rey‐Biel、Antonio Roldán-Monés
中文摘要
循证政策的实施取决于证据能否传播给政策制定者，而这一过程会受到信息发送者特征的影响。我们在全国范围内开展了一项随机对照试验（RCT）：由两个意识形态立场相反的知名智库、两家主要报纸以及一家意识形态不显著的研究机构，向西班牙大量地方政策制定者传达完全相同的信息；该信息基于已发表的研究结果，涉及一项低成本、非意识形态且行之有效的政策。我们直接衡量信息对政策采纳的影响，并发现了异质性效应。当传递信息的机构与政策制定者在意识形态上一致时，与未获知信息的对照组相比，传播研究结果使政策采纳率提高了65%以上；而由意识形态相反的机构传递信息则不会促成政策采纳。我们的研究设计还使我们能够比较智库等知识中介与主要报纸报道在促进公共政策采纳方面的影响。我们发现，当二者与政策制定者在意识形态上一致时，其提高政策采纳率的效果相同。我们提出了一个由三个阶段构成的政策采纳过程概念框架——信息的选择性接触、信念更新和政策实施——并表明意识形态一致性不会影响对信息的选择性接触。然而，一项干预后在线实验的证据表明，意识形态一致性会影响政策制定者对所推荐政策有效性的信念更新。最后，我们讨论了利用意识形态一致的机构和意识形态不显著的机构传播研究证据时，有效性与覆盖范围之间的权衡，并评述了意识形态一致性对政策实施的经济影响。
Abstract
The implementation of evidence-based policies hinges on the dissemination of evidence to policymakers, a process influenced by the attributes of the sender. We conduct a country-wide RCT in which two ideologically opposite prominent think tanks, two major newspapers, and a research institution with nonsalient ideology communicate identical information about a low-cost, non-ideological, and effective policy based on published research findings to a large sample of Spanish local policymakers. We measure the impact of information directly on policy adoption and find heterogeneous effects. When the informing institution aligns ideologically with policymakers, communicating research results leads to a more than 65% increase in policy adoption compared to an uninformed control group, while informing from an opposite ideology does not lead to policy adoption. Our design also allows us to compare the impact of knowledge brokers, such as think tanks, and coverage in leading newspapers in adopting public policies. We find that, when ideologically aligned with policymakers, both are equally effective in increasing policy adoption. We propose a three-stage conceptual framework of policy adoption processes - selective exposure to information, belief updating, and policy implementation- and show that ideological alignment does not influence selective exposure to information. However, evidence from a post-intervention online experiment shows that ideological alignment affects belief updating regarding a recommended policy's effectiveness. Finally, we discuss the trade-offs between effectiveness and outreach when using ideologically aligned and nonsalient institutions to disseminate research evidence and comment on the economic impact of ideological alignment for policy implementation.