On the Management of Public Opinion (Former Title: On the (Mis-)Use of Information for Public Debate)
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On the Management of Public Opinion (Former Title: On the (Mis-)Use of Information for Public Debate). / Patacconi, Andrea; Vikander, Nick.
2013.Research output: Working paper › Research
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TY - UNPB
T1 - On the Management of Public Opinion (Former Title: On the (Mis-)Use of Information for Public Debate)
AU - Patacconi, Andrea
AU - Vikander, Nick
N1 - JEL Classi…cation: D73, H11, H56.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - Policymakers often motivate their decisions by disclosing information. While this can hold the government to account, it may also give policymakers an incentive to "…fix the evidence" around their preferred policy. This paper considers a model of biased information gathering where the government can in‡fluence the workings of an agency in charge of collecting information. We examine how different disclosure rules and the degree of independence of the government agency affect citizen welfare. Our main result is that insulating the agency from political pressure, so that its information is always unbiased, may not be socially optimal. A biased information gathering process can curb the government’'s tendency to implement its ex ante favored policy, thus mitigating the agency con‡flict between policymakers and the public.
AB - Policymakers often motivate their decisions by disclosing information. While this can hold the government to account, it may also give policymakers an incentive to "…fix the evidence" around their preferred policy. This paper considers a model of biased information gathering where the government can in‡fluence the workings of an agency in charge of collecting information. We examine how different disclosure rules and the degree of independence of the government agency affect citizen welfare. Our main result is that insulating the agency from political pressure, so that its information is always unbiased, may not be socially optimal. A biased information gathering process can curb the government’'s tendency to implement its ex ante favored policy, thus mitigating the agency con‡flict between policymakers and the public.
KW - Faculty of Social Sciences
KW - transparency
KW - accountability
KW - independence
KW - manipulation of information
KW - Faculty of Law
M3 - Working paper
BT - On the Management of Public Opinion (Former Title: On the (Mis-)Use of Information for Public Debate)
ER -
ID: 81611387