Science writers and government policy

Applying behavioural science to government policy: Finding the ‘Goldilocks Zone’

Using behavioural and social science to inform government policy has the potential to benefit society – provided good scientific practice is adopted. We argue that there are threats to scientific practice in the current Behavioural Insights environment that potentially undermine the validity and usefulness of such work. We discuss what constitutes good science and why this is important, and exa...

Mergers and Government Policy *

It has long been thought that government antitrust policy has an effect on aggregate merger and acquisition activity, but the empirical support for this hypothesis has been weak and inconsistent. This paper uses a new empirical specification and a new dataset on mergers and acquisitions to provide support for this conjecture. Regression analysis shows that government policy has a significant in...

Practical Consequences for Writers of Science and Their Teachers

Evaluating and revisiting the public government: a policy feedback perspective

Existing models of quality evaluation in public sector are mainly derived from the approaches within private sector. These models which represented by the New Public Management (NPM) paradigm, don&rsquot reflect the fundamental values of public administration, which are the very essence of the discipline and contrasting it from private sector. These core values, such as democratic citizenship, ...

Vagueness, Credibility, and Government Policy

Should the Federal Reserve or any other government agency make precise statements about its policy objectives? Determining the proper amount of secrecy in government generates controversy whether the agency involved undertakes espionage, banking, or monetary policy. Between the broad areas of agreement (classifying military strategies, publishing legislation) lie equally broad areas of contenti...