IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/sjecst/v154y2018i1d10.1186_s41937-017-0009-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On economists as policy advisors with applications to Switzerland

Author

Listed:
  • Aymo Brunetti

    (University of Bern)

Abstract

This paper analyses the role of economists in advising political agents. Based on the experience in the recent financial crisis, it starts with the important role of expectations management. Economists should make clear that precise forecasts are not possible but that application of economic principles and careful analysis of data and historical events can substantially improve political decisions. In order to be effective, economic advisors have to be aware of the first best as well as of the political feasibility of proposals. Efficiency is the obvious benchmark, but a large part of policy advice is about finding the least inefficient of the feasible alternatives. The paper argues that a crucial precondition for being an effective policy advisor are communication skills; academics who become policy advisors should not try to impress their peers but rather translate insights in a language that is understandable for educated laypeople. The paper then looks at the special situation of economic policy advice in the Swiss direct democracy before concluding with a summary of the most important preconditions for being a successful policy advisor.

Suggested Citation

  • Aymo Brunetti, 2018. "On economists as policy advisors with applications to Switzerland," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 154(1), pages 1-5, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sjecst:v:154:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1186_s41937-017-0009-4
    DOI: 10.1186/s41937-017-0009-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s41937-017-0009-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1186/s41937-017-0009-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. D. Acemoglu & J. Robinson, 2013. "Economics versus politics: pitfalls of policy advice," Voprosy Ekonomiki, NP Voprosy Ekonomiki, issue 12.
    2. Rivlin, Alice M, 1987. "Economics and the Political Process," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(1), pages 1-10, March.
    3. Schultze, Charles L, 1982. "The Role and Responsibilities of the Economist in Government," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(2), pages 62-66, May.
    4. Lee H. Hamilton, 1992. "Economists as Public Policy Advisers," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 6(3), pages 61-64, Summer.
    5. Gardner Ackley, 1966. "The Contribution Of Economists To Policy Formation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 21(2), pages 169-177, May.
    6. Christopher K. Leman & Robert H. Nelson, 1982. "Ten commandments for policy economists," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 1(1), pages 97-117.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Bruno S. Frey, 2000. "Was Bewirkt die Volkswirtschaftslehre?," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 1(1), pages 5-33, February.
    2. Heine Klaus & Mause Karsten, 2003. "Politikberatung als informationsökonomisches Problem," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 223(4), pages 479-490, August.
    3. Gäfgen, Gérard, 1987. "Formen und Erfolgsbedingungen wissenschaftlicher Beratung der Wirtschaftspolitik," Discussion Papers, Series I 232, University of Konstanz, Department of Economics.
    4. Bruno Frey, 2006. "How Influential is Economics?," De Economist, Springer, vol. 154(2), pages 295-311, June.
    5. Rosaria Canale, 2015. "Capital flows, long term bond yields and fiscal stance: the Eurozone policy trilemma," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 14(1), pages 31-44, December.
    6. Carlo Altavilla & Miguel Boucinha & José-Luis Peydró & Frank Smets, 2019. "Banking Supervision, Monetary Policy and Risk-Taking: Big Data Evidence from 15 Credit Registers," Working Papers 1137, Barcelona School of Economics.
    7. Andreas T. Schmidt & Daan Juijn, 2024. "Economic inequality and the long-term future," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 23(1), pages 67-99, February.
    8. Stanley L. Winer, 2016. "The Political Economy of Taxation: Power, Structure, Redistribution," Carleton Economic Papers 16-15, Carleton University, Department of Economics.
    9. Christian Grimm & Jakob Kapeller & Stephan Puehringer, 2017. "Zum Profil der deutschsprachigen Volkswirtschaftslehre: Paradigmatische Ausrichtung und politische Orientierung deutschsprachiger Oekonom_innen (On the current state of German-speaking Economics: Para," ICAE Working Papers 70, Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy.
    10. Polemis, Michael L. & Fafaliou, Irene, 2015. "Electricity regulation and FDIs spillovers in the OECD: A panel data econometric approach," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 110-123.
    11. Justus Haucap & Tobias Thomas & Gert G. Wagner, 2015. "Zu wenig Einfluss des ökonomischen Sachverstands? Empirische Befunde zum Einfluss von Ökonomen und anderen Wissenschaftlern auf die Wirtschaftspolitik," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1449, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    12. Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo, 2014. "Under the Thumb of History? Political Institutions and the Scope for Action," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 951-971, August.
    13. Gram, Dennis & Karapanagiotis, Pantelis & Krzyzanowski, Jan & Liebald, Marius & Walz, Uwe, 2021. "An extensible model for historical financial data with an application to German company and stock market data," SAFE Working Paper Series 300, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    14. Mohsen Javdani & Ha-Joon Chang, 2023. "Who said or what said? Estimating ideological bias in views among economists," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 47(2), pages 309-339.
    15. Strohner Ludwig & Berger Johannes & Thomas Tobias, 2019. "Sekt oder Selters? – Ökonomische Folgen der Reformzurückhaltung bei der Beendigung des Solidaritätszuschlags," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 19(4), pages 313-330, February.
    16. Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2004. "Advising Policymakers through the Media," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(4), pages 395-406, October.
    17. Anthony Atkinson, 2015. "The Distribution of Top Incomes in Former British West Africa," Working Papers 201503, World Inequality Lab.
    18. Tobias Franz, 2019. "Why ‘Good Governance’ Fails: Lessons from Regional Economic Development in Colombia," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 776-785, July.
    19. George Economides & Pantelis Kammas & Thomas Moutos, 2020. "On the Interaction between Minimum Wage Adoption and Fiscal Redistribution: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation," CESifo Working Paper Series 8355, CESifo.
    20. Lindsey, Robin & Santos, Georgina, 2020. "Addressing transportation and environmental externalities with economics: Are policy makers listening?," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).

    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:spr:sjecst:v:154:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1186_s41937-017-0009-4. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.