Excerpt

On Interesting Policymakers. Cass Sunstein, November 2015, Opinion. "If a nation created a Council of Psychological Science Advisers, what would it do? The closest analogy in the United States, of course, is the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), whose advice often matters a great deal. The reason is not typically that the CEA offers interesting or novel academic findings. It is that public officials want to solve concrete policy problems, and the CEA (and other economists, found throughout the national government) can help them to do so. Suppose that the President of the United States wants his advisors to decide whether to adopt a “cash for clunkers” program, by which the government provides money to subsidize people who trade in their old vehicles for new ones. If the President seeks to stimulate the economy, and also to produce environmental improvements, economists will provide indispensable guidance (above all by projecting the results of the program with a useful cost–benefit analysis)." Link