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  5. Ideological Alignment and Evidence-Based Policy Adoption

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

Ideological Alignment and Evidence-Based Policy Adoption

  • Jorge García-Hombrados
  • Marcel Jansen
  • Angel Martínez
  • Berkay Özcan
  • Pedro Rey-Biel
  • Antonio Roldán-Monés
American Economic Review (Forthcoming)

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 conducted a nationwide RCT with ideologically opposite think tanks, major newspapers, and a research institution with nonsalient ideology to communicate a non-ideological, cost-effective policy to local policymakers. Results show a 65% increase in policy adoption when informing institutions align ideologically with policymakers. We also compare the impact of think tanks versus media outlets on implementation, finding both equally effective when ideologically aligned. We propose and test a three-stage policy adoption framework: information exposure, belief updating, and implementation.

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