In our Q1 2021 research article we discussed how to structure policy analysis in order to improve human lives. Part of our proposed framework was creating a dashboard of economic and social indicators that allows policymakers to produce data and values-driven policies. The idea is that the trends observed in the data should form the policy strategy of the government - thereby increasing transparency and accountability, as the government is clear from the outset with regards to what they a looking to achieve.
The link between the governments policy strategy and the policies that get put into practice is that the strategy should inform where resources are spent and attentions are focussed. The individual policies will look to generate the optimal allocation of resources with respect to the the governments overarching policy strategy. The strategy will also help to lock in formal objectives for the government and the dashboard will show how the government is performing against these objectives.
The aims of this approach are multi-faceted. In particular the emphasis in this article is towards increasing trust in public institutions. Countries with higher levels of trust in the governments tend to have happier citizens, all else equal. We also saw that countries with higher levels of trust performed better during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. In some advanced economies, such as the US, trust in government has been steadily declining for some time.
In the paper we look to outline guiding principles for how to structure a framework for using data to form a governments policy strategy, as well as principles for building the dashboards too. These are briefly outlined below, and explained in more detail in full article.
The slides from the presentation in the video above are available here. Or, to read the full research article, please click on the link below.