Test, Learn, Adapt: Developing Public Policy with Randomised Controlled Trials

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Haynes ◽  
Owain Service ◽  
Ben Goldacre ◽  
David Torgerson
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Randomised Controlled Trials ◽  
Controlled Trials ◽  
Randomised Controlled

scholarly journals Science for policy: the need for a Commission for Science

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun C Hendy
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Randomised Controlled Trials ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Experimental Techniques ◽  
Controlled Trials ◽  
New Policies ◽  
Randomised Controlled

There is growing interest in the use of scientific research for informing public policy (Gluckman, 2011). Science has shown itself increasingly able to make predictions of catastrophic harms many decades in advance, as well as suggesting ways in which these harms may be avoided. Scientific methodologies are now also being drawn on in many other areas of policy. Randomised controlled trials (RCT) and related statistical and experimental techniques are starting to be used to evaluate the effectiveness of existing policy and to experiment with the development of new policies, for instance (Pearce and Raman, 2014).

scholarly journals Three challenges for behavioural science and policy: the empirical, the normative and the political

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROBERT LEPENIES ◽  
KATHRYN MACKAY ◽  
MUIREANN QUIGLEY
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Randomised Controlled Trials ◽  
The Political ◽  
Controlled Trials ◽  
Behavioural Science ◽  
Science And Policy ◽  
What Works ◽  
Randomised Controlled

AbstractIn a ‘post-truth’ era in which personality and opinion trump evidence and reason, the need for frankness in debates about the use and boundaries of science and policy is high. We welcome the reflective and nuanced approach to behavioural science in policy-making in Sanders, Snijders and Hallsworth's (2018) piece. Despite our support for the approach in this paper, we suggest that there are deeper issues than are currently acknowledged. Our critique tackles three issues: the empirical, the normative and the political. In the first section, we examine what counts as ‘behavioural’ and how this label is used to legitimate a range of policy activities. We then look at randomised controlled trials in the next section, highlighting the extra-scientific dimensions of the empirical ‘What Works’ revolution. Finally, we question some ontological assumptions that drive empirical research and its translation into policy, asking where the collective is to be found in behavioural public policy.

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